
Class, 
Book. 



M<? 



Co 



VJ9, 



THE 



DOOM OF SLAVERY 



IN THE UNION: 



ITS SAFETY 



OUT OF IT. 



SECOND EDITION. 



Read and Send to your Neighbor. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

PRINTED BY EVANS <fc COGSWELL.. 

No. 3 Broad and 103 East Bay Streets. 

1860. 



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ADDRESS 



HON. JOHN TOWNSEND. 



The Edisto Island Vigilant Association being in session on Monday, 
October 29, the President, Hon. John Townsend, delivered the following 
address, which was ordered to be published : 

Gentlemen of the Association: As we are organized for the object, 
especially, of protecting our slave institutions, it is proper that we should 
hold frequent counsel together, and carefully consider the modes by which 
it might be assailed. 

The crisis is fast approaching, and a few brief weeks will decide 
whether we are to drag out a few years more of dishonored existence, 
under a Black Republican rule, which. has openly declared their purpose 
to destroy us — or whether, casting all unmanly fears to the winds, we shall 
take our destiny under our own control, and with God to help us, resolve 
that we will be ruled only by ourselves. 

From all present indications, Lincoln will be elected by the Electoral 
College ; but if not by that mode, then by Congress afterwards. With 
the whole North thoroughly sectionalized and given over to Abolitionism 
(a very small and uninfluential party c$Iy excepted), every Douglas Dem- 
ocrat, and every Bell and Everett supporter, in all that populous region, 
may be classed, as between Breckinridge and Lincoln, a supporter of the 
latter. In opinions and feelings they affiliate with the party which sup- 
port him, as against the South ; and when the day of trial shall come, 
when they shall be required to indicate their preference, it will be found 
that they will be governed by their Abolition proclivities, and give their 
support in Congress to the nominee of the Black Republicans. Thepnw- 
ciples, then, of that dangerous party may be considered as those which are 
to control the Government after the 4th March next. 

I know there is, with some, a feeble hope entertained that, if the elec- 
tion goes into Congress, Breckinridge, or Bell, or Lane, by some skillful 
management or good luck, might be sjipped into the Presidency instead of 
Lincoln. But this hope, feeble as it is, must be regarded as a mere delu- 
sion ; or more probably, it is the resort of the timid, to postpone, and after- 
wards avoid, timely and manly resistance. But admitting it might be so, 
let it be considered that Mr. Buchanan with all his high claims to enlarged 
statesmanship, and with all his skill as an experienced politician, has 
been unable to conduct the Government upon the principles of justice and 
equality which the Constitution contemplates. Nor has he been able to 
protect even himself, as the Chief of the Execunve Department of the 
Government, from the rude and aggressive assaults of the overbearing 



and irresponsible Black Republican majority, which has, now, control of 
the House of Representatives, and will soon have control of the Senate of 
the United States. How vain, then, and fallacious, is it to expect that 
either of the. distinguished individuals above named (Breckinridge, Lane 
or Bell) will be able to accomplish what Mr. Buchanan has failed to 
achieve. 

No President can protect the South. 

We cannot, then, loo soon realize to ourselves the impressive fact that, 
constituted as the Government of the United States now is, of two hostile 
parties, in which the Black Republicans have an overwhelming- majority 
in the House of Representatives, as they will soon have in the Senate — a 
President becomes powerless to enforce the just obligations of each under 
the Constitution ; and that he, as well as every other interest in the 
country, must expect to be brought under subjection to that ravening ma- 
jority. In this view of the subject, how futile is it in the people of the 
South to place their dependence upon a President for their protection, no 
matter how devoted to their interests that President may be ; whilst the 
thought irresistibly springs up in the mind — how degraded they must be 
in their own self-respect, when a whole people would flee to a single man 
at Washington to receive from him shelter and protection, when they have 
organized State governments of their own, which they might interpose, if 
they had only the courage to rouse up their slumbering energies. 

The contingency, however, of either of the individuals just alluded to, 
filling the Presidential office, is so remote that it is scarcely worthy of 
the passing glance which we have given it. The pregnant, indisputable, 
momentous fact, which the South has now to deal with, is, that our ene- 
mies are about to take possession of the Government, that they intend to 
rule us according to the caprices of their fanatical theories, and according 
to the declared purposes of abolishing slavery ; and that in working out 
these plans for our ruin and degradation, we must expect just that sort 
of leniency which is shown by the conqueror over a subjugated and 
craven people, who are the objects of his contempt and disgust, because 
they have proved themselves too cowardly to defend their honor, their 
families, and their property. Mr. Lincoln must be considered as the rep- 
resentative of these principles ; and as soon and as long as they have 
control of the Government, it matters not to the South who fills the office 
of President. They have now so far the control, as to give to every Act of 
Congress a sectional character, and to defeat any measure of legislation 
friendly to the South. Upon the election of Mr. Lincoln they will take 
complete possession of the Government; and then they will carry out 
those schemes of hostility against our property and domestic peace, which 
they have long threatened us with, but which they have not had hereto- 
fore the power to accomplish. 

Will the South remain a passive victim, and, like the timid sheep, allow 
itself to be bound whilst the butcher is preparing the knife for its destruc- 
tion ; or will she not rather throw off, at once, her degrading sloth and 
cowardice, and, summoning up her ample powers, throw off a government 
which is about to be taken possession of by her deadly enemies? If she 
decide this question according to the wisdom of courage, a long career of 
prosperity is before her) to be attained, perchance, through a sharp but 
brief conflict, which may call for much personal and pecuniary sacrifices; 
but if, on the contrary, she decide it according to the folly of a timid sub 






mission, her doom will be short as it will be dishonored ; — a few brief 
years of besotted indulgence, whilst their enemies are perfecting their 
plans: — then emancipation of their slaves; then poverty, political equal- 
ity with their former slaves, insurrection, war of extermination between 
the two races, and death, and expatriation, to fill up the picture. 

How can Congress abolish Slavery in the States ? 

But it is asked, and that, too, sometimes, by intelligent men, — how can 
Congress abolish slavery, when the States alone in which it exists have 
control over it? The confidence with which this question is generally 
asked, would seem to imply that it can be answered only in the negative ; 
and that it can be abolished only with the consent of the owners of thai 
property. Hence the indifference they manifest at the declared purposes 
of the Abolitionists. to "extinguish it in every State of the Union." This 
dangerous mistake requires to be considered, and the modes by which that 
stupendous evil might be brought upon us, carefully reflected upon. 

The two modes. 

What, then, are the modes by which our enemies intend to abolish 
slavery in the South ? 

There are two modes by which this is to be clone. The first is by 
violencr, insurrection and bloodshed. The second is "constitutionally," as 
they term it; that is, through the operation of law, and a change of the 
Constitution, as soon as they get possession of the law-making power of 
the Government. The first is represented by the Garrisonian wing of the 
great Abolition party, of which Giddings, and Hickman, and Lovejoy, 
are the types, and su6h men as John Brown, and the miscreants who 
were lately hanged in Texas, are the agents. The second represents the 
Black Republican wing of the party, over which Seward is the master 
mind. Although differing in their modes of operation, the two wings of 
that great party are thoroughly identified in the mischievous object which 
they both aim at; and that is, the entire abolition of slavery in the whole 
South J* The policy of the first, or Gildings and Garrisonian wing of the 
party, is to make slavery unpopular and unprofitable, by sending emissa- 
ries amongst our slaves, to excite them to insurrection and bloodshed, to 
burn down our towns and buildings of agriculture, to destroy our prop- 
erty, and lay waste our crops; and by the agitation and excitement 
which must accompany these measures, and by the poverty which it will 
spread over the whole South, to compel the slaveholder himself to eman- 
cipate his slaves. Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, many years ago, disclosed, in 
part, the programme of their operations, when, with the keen appetite for 
Southern blood which a fiend only could feel, he exclaimed : " 1 look for- 
ward to the day when there shall be a servile insurrection in the South ; 
when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and led on by British 
officers, shall assert his freedom, and wage a war of extermination against 
his master; when the torch of the incendiary shall light up the towns and 
cities of the South, and blot out the last vestige of slavery. And though I 
may not mock at their calamity, nor laugh when their fear cometh, yet I 
shall hail it as the dawn of a political millennium." This man, let it be 
remembered, in passing, is the warm personal and political friend and 
supporter of Mr. Lincoln. Since he enunciated this scheme of assault 
upon our peaceful homes, his party have made additions to the instru- 

* See Appendix, A. 



6 

merits of our destruclion. To fire, and murder, and the devastation of 
property, they have added rape, and poison ; and if they be permitted to 
accomplish their designs, we can expect from them in future nothing but 
the foulest indignities and the most atrocious cruelties.* 

But, gentlemen of the Association, these evils can be arrested by vigi- 
lance and firmness : by vigilance in detecting every vile intruder upon 
our peace; and by firmness, in bringing the miscreant to condign and 
summary punishment, as soon as his guilt shall be established. In per- 
forming this duty to your families and to the State, I have the utmost con- 
fidence that the laws will be respected, and that nothing but even-handed 
justice will be dealt out to every one. Whilst we remain in the Union, 
our annoyances from these emissaries we may expect to be frequent, 
from the aid and sympathy which they will receive from a hostile gov- 
ernment at Washington, and from the privileges they now have of travel- 
ling amongst us, as people under the same government. The time, how- 
ever, I hope, is not distant, when they shall be deprived of these privileges 
and excuses, and they shall appear among us only as aliens and foreigners. 

The peaceful and Constitutional mode of Mr. Seward. 

The second mode, by which slavery is to be abolished, is that which 
Mr. Seward and his followers designate as " peaceful and constitutional." 
This is immeasurably a more dangerous scheme than that of open assault 
upon our institution, in the mode of insurrections; and nothing can save 
the South from the successful accomplishment of this scheme of our ene- 
mies, but &er speedy separation from them; now that she has the power, 
and there are so many favorable circumstances to aid her in dofng so. 
The danger with which this scheme is loaded, is so quiet and unobtrusive 
in its nature, that its advances will create little excitement or alarm in the 
South. It will possess itself stealthily of its victim. In the meantime, 
its cancerous roots will be spreading themselves over the whole system; 
causing the South daily to grow weaker, whilst the North is daily becom- 
ing stronger, by their exactions upon the South, and by the filling up of 
the Territories with an abolition population. And when, at the end of a 
few years, the South shall be waked up out of her drowsy lethargy, it 
will be to find that her power is gone, that the North has become her 
master, and can alter the Constitution to suit her own abolition purposes. 
In anticipation of a Black Republican President, Mr. Seward already 
begins to exult at the domination of the North, and over the impotency of 
the' South. In a speech delivered by him on the 18th September, at St. 
Paul, Minn., in allusion to the warfare which has been waged upon Afri- 
can slavery by Black Republicanism, he boastfully exclaims: "The 
battle has been fought and the victory has been won.* Slavery to-day is, 
for the first time, not only powerless, but without influence, in the American 
Republic." This, it must be admitted, is a sober and humiliating fact, if 
the South were bound to remain in the Union, with a Black Republican 
and hostile government to rule over, degrade, and impoverish her. But 
with the right and the power to establish a government of her own (if 
God would "only give her the wisdom and the courage so to determine), 
she might stand before the world, as proud a Republic as the sun now 
shines upon. 

Regarding the South with the contempt which he and his followers 
have long learnt to indulge towards her, that under no circumstances of 
humiliation and injury can the South be "kicked out of the Union," Mr. 

*See Appendix, B. 



Seward knew well what he said, when he declared, that slavery would be 
abolished, and that " constitutionally." To soothe the apprehensions of 
the South, to amuse them with delusive expectations, into a state of undis- 
turbed confidence in the stability of their slave property, Mr. Seward 
seems to take particular pains, on all occasions, to make it known that 
the Black Republican party, which he controls, have no intention to dis- 
turb slavery in the States where it exists. An opposite declaration to 
this, he well knew would have alarmed the South, and perhaps driven 
some, or all of them, out of the Union, and then he would have lost the 
game. Not anticipating, apparently, that the Government at Washington 
could ever be turned over to the dominion of Abolitionism, and that slavery 
in the States could ever be overthrown, by any interference from that 
quarter, the people of the South generally regarded this annunciation of 
Mr. Seward, that it was to be abolished "constitutionally/' with that sort 
of indifference with which men usually contemplate an impossibility. 
But the recent developments of the power of the Black Republican party, 
entertaining as it does, such deadly hostility to slavery, and hatred of 
slaveholders : with the certainty that it will soon control the whole power 
of the Government — is well calculated to disturb this equanimity, and 
stir up the inquiry, How can slavery in the States be "constitutionally 
abolished !" 

The South, heretofore, has never had occasion, seriously to consider so 
momentous a question. Acting with the great Democratic party of the 
country (of which she has been, for several years past, the main support), 
and which has heretofore been constitutional and conservative in its aims, 
she has been able to protect her great institution of African slavery against 
the raging assaults of Abolitionism, so far, at least, as against any action 
coming from the General Government. The nomination of Fremont, four 
years ago, as a purely Northern and sectional candidate, was calculated to 
interrupt this serenity, as it indicated the advancing boldness of her ene- 
mies ; and the very small majority by which he was defeated, was a proof 
how rapidly their power had increased. Since then, squadron after squad- 
ron of Northern Democrats have turned traitors to the Constitution and 
their obligations to the South, and have deserted over to the enemy. 

This gives to our enemies the victory — a victory which will be followed 
by a general stampede of the bulk of the Douglas Democrats, and of the 
Bell and Everett men, at the North (all at heart, Abolitionists), to take 
shelter within the enemy's camp, with a view to share with them in the 
spoils of the Government, and in the robbery of the South. 

The South in a Hopeless Minority in the Government. 

Let the South, then, face the reality, with such feelings as she may; 
that she is now in a MINORITY, in the Federal Government; a minority 
which will be largely increased with the result of the approaching Federal 
elections, which will leave the whole North banded with her enemies; a 
minority which will be permanent, and increasing year by year; a minority 
in a Government which is soon to be controlled by a party — one wing of 
which have sent, and are now sending among our people fire, and murder, 
and the sword, and rape, and poison, to desolate our land ; whilst the 
other wing is preparing and perfecting measures by the Government, to 
effect legally, and constitutionally, the "entire extinction of slavery in all 
the States." Let the South realize to herself, in all its dark and lowering 
aspects, the fact which Mr. Seward so triumphantly exults in, — "That 



8 

slavery is now not only powerless but without influence in the American 
Republic." 

Taking- along with us in our minds this fact that the South is powerless 
to protect herself in the Federal Government, and that after the 4th March 
next she will be at the mercy of her enemies — the mercy of the Abolition- 
ists — we are now prepared to consider intelligently the question : How 
Congress can abolish slavery in the States legally and constitutionally — 
at least according to the forms of law and the Constitution — which is all 
that the most lenient of our enemies will think it necessary to wait for. 

In the first place it may be answered — this dire calamity cannot be 
inflicted upon the South if she ivithdraw from the Union: — whilst it can 
be, and inevitably will be, visited upon her, in all its horrors, if she con- 
tinue connected with a Government which has both the will and the 
power to accomplish it. 

An eloquent writer in Virginia has so forcibly presented the argument 
on this question, under the signature of "Python," in the March number 
of De Bow's excellent Review, that I make no apology for here availing 
myself of large extracts from it, and as also strengthening the views 
which I have previously expressed : 

The manner in which u peaceful and Constitutional" Abolition, as it 
is called, will be accomplished. 

"Abolition proper is founded on moral frenzy and religious fanaticism; and 
negating all law save that of a morbid imagination, all science save that of a diseased 
fancy, and all government save that of a prejudiced and infuriated mob, looks for- 
ward to the social and political equality of the negro with the white man, at whatever 
sacrifice of life and the industrial interests of the world, amidst rape, rapine, confla- 
gration, robbery and murder. They have no statesmanship. They ignore the 
Constitution of the United States and all State Constitutions ; and they declare the 
Union to be a ' compact ivith hell and an agreement with the devil.' Woe unto the 
South ! Woe unto the whole land, North as well as South, if the leaders of aboli- 
tionism, Giddings, Smith, Chase, Sumner, Wilson, Hale, Garrison, Phillips, Wilmot, 
Banks, Adams, Greeley, Bryant, and the 'three thousand Puritan preachers,' should 
succeed in grasping the reins of Black Republicanism to guide that powerful organ- 
ization in the line of their purposes. They would be governed alone by a blind rage 
in the subversion of the social, political and industrial systems of the South, whether 
the South remained in the Union, or went out of the Union, accompanied by the total 
loss of the cotton crop, thereby leading directly and inevitably to general starvation 
and anarchy through the destruction of manufactures. To the beastly horrors of 
the French Revolution in St. Domingo would be added the ghastly massacres of the 
French Revolution, and the squalid miseries of the great famine in Ireland. 

Black Republicanism: what it is. 

"Black Republicanism, embracing and controlling Abolitionism, on the other hand, 
professes to entertain due regard for law, government and constitutions. Mr. Cor- 
win but repeats what Seward had previously said, even in his celebrated " irrepres- 
sible conflict" speech at Rochester, that whatever shall be done in reference to the 
subject of negro slavery, whether as the question affects the States or Territories, 
must be constitutionally done.* The present leaders of this party claim to respect 

#The New York Herald thus substantiates this position in an article headed ; ' The 
Issue before Congress and the country," viz : 

"The issue before Congress and the country is the abolition of slavery in the slave 
States. We know that Mr. Sen-aid pleads the plea of a constitutional crusade ; but we know 
that constitutions and laws can be twisted into any shape by designing and reckless 
men. Helper and Brown are the true interpreters of the 'irrepressible conflict.' It 
means an aggressive conflict against slavery, a conflict of abolition forays from the free 
States, of servile revolts, of agrarian conspiracies, and the subjugation and suppression of 
slavery and the ' slave power 1 by terrorism, and by fire and sword." 



all existing rights, political, real and personal. They all negate, orally and through 
their journals, the doctrines of the abolitionists proper. But they assert the consti- 
tutional supremacy of Congress over the territories, for the purpose of excluding 
negro-slave institutions, and thereby deny the right on the part of slaveholders 
to take to the territories, and hold therein, property in negro slaves. They more- 
over look forward with exultation and gratulation to the time, not very distant, 
when, through amendments to the Constitution constitutionally made, the _ slave- 
holding States themselves may be reached and controlled by Congress in the 
line of their real designs. As constructed and directed by Seward, their organ- 
ization is political, and separate from religious fanaticism and moral frenzy; and 
so Ion"- as it remains political, is only potent for evil while the South shall con- 
tinue m the Union. Nor are they destitute of policy and statesmanship. They have 
not only evolved a broad and profound policy, but have mentally eliminated a 
comprehensive and far-reaching statesmanship which contemplates, by the constant 
accession of 'free States' from 'free Territories,' and by a continually accumulating 
and preponderating population, generating an overwhelming and all-controlling major- 
ity of senatorial and popular representatives, the gradual consolidation of the Govern- 
ment through amendments to the Constitution thus to be wrought, and the conversion 
of the confederacy into empire, as necessary to the suppression of rebellion and anarch//, 
while preserving the forms of a representative republic, through clothing the Presi- 
dent with dictatorial powers as aforetime was in Rome. 

" Abolitionism, as we have said, governed by moral frenzy and religious fanaticism, 
has no stopping point ; and Black Republicanism, in the hands of the abolition lead- 
ers, would pursue its' objects at the South with all the fury of prejudice and rage of 
war after disunion. But Black Republicanism, as a political organization in control 
of abolitionism, has a stopping point, and ceases its power for mischief in regard :o 
the South, at least with disunion. On one point alone, is there absolute agreement 
between the two, and that is the ultimate property robbery of the South in respect to both 
real' and personal estate; and even here the means the one would resort to are cbffei- 
ent from those the other would pursue, as will presently appear. 

Insecurity of property at the North against the agrarianism of those 

having no property. 

" A profound and thoughtful student of the annals of Tacitus, in their striking 
parallelism and application to our social and political condition, during that transi- 
tion period when the old republic was passing into the empire of the Csesars, without 
the alteration of a name or form that belonged to the ancient constitution— -as may 
be readily ascertained from his extraordinary speeches— Mr. Seward set himself to 
the task of Marius and the great Julius, and under a liberal, generous, and magnan- 
imous banner that equally appealed to every mass-element throughout the non-slave- 
holding States, attracted their regard, and with a solitary exception hereafter to be 
honorably mentioned, combined them all into that concentrated and powerful agrarian 
organization, called by themselves the 'Radical Democratic party,' but better 
known as ' Black Republican,' with himself as its apex. Long before this the prop- 
erty interests of the North had become alarmed at the daily increasing and over- 
whelming numbers and powers of the non-property holders enjoying the right of 
suffrage with property holders, and consequently, directing State legislation, so that 
all the burdens of government, civil and municipal, together with all the expenses 
of a general system of education, should be fastened upon property, in itselj unrepre- 
sented and without a voice in its own protection. This had led to the earlier strug- 
gles in the national councils at Washington for the possession of the Territories by 
the North, and, finally, to that system of agrarian enactment, parceling out the 
public domains into 'free' farms for the multitude. These movements were intended 
by the representatives from the North to diminish danger at home, to secure then- 
own doors, and to divert the hordes of agrarianism by supplying those necessities 
their will demanded. Regarding these tacts. Seward, with the Black Republican 
party, now fully organized and returning a majority to Congress, resolved to hold, 
with an iron grasp, the Territories as against the South, and to close m th< slave- 
holding States until the time should eome when they would be demanded as a pres- 
to feed the Northern vulture. Hence he encouraged the Emigrant Atd Soct 
their treason; hence he smiled approvingly upon Beecher, holding the Bible in one hand 



10 

and Sharp's rifle in the other; hence his ceaseless diatribes concerning the aggressions 
of the South: hence hi* fervid denunciations of the Lecompton Constitution; and 
hence his studied defence of the Topeka outlaws in Kansas. He saw that, with the 
Becurement of Kansas as a non-slaveholding State, the doom of the South was sealed 
in the Union ; that the shareholding States, through the natural and constitutional 
flow of events afterwards, would necessarily become, first provincialized in a govern- 
ment they had contributed everything to form and sacrificed everything to maintain ; 
and next, be driven, in some instances to relinquish their domestic institutions, and 
in others to submit to such changes as might be dictated by the North holding the 
Government, exercising its authority, and wielding its power. It was in view of all 
these designs of Black Republicanism and consequences to the South, that, two years 
ago, in January, 1858, during the pendency of the Kansas question, and while the 
South might yet have been rallied as a unit to prevent the threatened catastrophe, I 
addressed to their representatives in Congress the following appeal, to wit : 

Consequences of the j.oss of Kansas to the South. 

" The surrender of Kansas to the operation of the Majority Rule in the Territories, 
under the cry of « popular sovereignty' without the Constitution, and her absorption 
by the non-slaveholding power of the country, will make the evil of the times no 
longer prospective, but instant and imminent. By the fact of this surrender the South 
will become subordinate and the North predominant in the Union. Never again in 
the Union, could the equilibrium of State-sovereign representation between the South 
and the. North be either maintained in or restored to the Senate. Never a^ain in 
the Union, could the equality of the South with the North be either maintained in, 
or restored to the House of Representatives. No further barrier could be con- 
structed between either the aggressive Territorial, or the political rapacity of the 
North and the weakened and diminished South. The South, like the dead body of 
Hector bound to the car of Achilles, will soon be dragged by the triumphant North 
around a ruined possession, quickly to be followed by the erasive ploughshare of the 
subverting conqueror." 

Loss of Missouri. 

" The loss of Kansas to the South will involve the loss of Missouri, and the loss of 
Missouri will destroy the moral, as well as the political prestige of the South, and 
invade the integrity of their institutions. The moral prestige of States, like that of 
individuals, once destroyed, no earthly power can restore ; and the integrity of State 
establishments, like the chastity of woman, once subjected to invasion, continues at 
the will of the despoiler. With abolitionized Iowa stretching along the northern 
boundary of Missouri, and abolitionized Kansas covering the western boundary, 
while through Kansas and Iowa there poured into her bosom, from the more inhos- 
pitable lake and northern Atlantic regions, a continuous stream of agrarian Radi- 
cals, alike determined to obtain control of her government and to assert the rule of 
the majority in the line of emancipation, slave property in Missouri will soon become 
too precarious in its tenure to be holden, and the necessity for its sale or removal 
will at once arise. It may be confidently asserted that, in a few years, Missouri, 
under these circumstances, will cease to be a slave-he lding State. Already, in view 
of the anticipated result, Abolition journals have been started in Missouri, and some 
of her candidates for Congress have boldly unfurled the banner of emancipation.* 

Loss of the Indian Territory. 

" Now, the loss of Missouri to the South will involve the loss of the Creek and 
Cherokee domain, the Chooktaw and Chickasaw domain, New Mexico and Arizcnia, 
which otherwise could be saved to the slave-holding interests of the country and the 
harmonious equilibrium of the Union. It is known that the Creeks and Cherokees 

* li One of these Abolition candidates has since been elected from the St. Louis district 
of Missouri. Such is the rapid advance of Abolitionism in that State." 



11 



number from thirty to forty thousand free inhabitants, holding at least ten thousand 
negro slaves. The Facts as to the Choetaws and Chickasaws stand in a similar ratio. 
The wlfite man's blood predominates in both nations, strongly coloring each with the 
mental forms and expressions of the white race. They have each a regular govern- 
ment, with distinct legislative, executive and judiciary departments; with a common- 
school system ; with Christian churches established in many directions ; and with the 
arts of Agriculture considerably developed. Each is gradually preparing to enter 
the Union as a slave-holding State. But with Abolitionized Kansas and Missouri 
(both bein"- now subject to the North) along their northern limits, the Hood gates 
will be thrown open through which the abolition tide will sweep with resistless ener- 
gies driving before it, or overwhelming in its deluge, alike the hybrid Indian ami the 
negro slave? thus ultimately adding both domains to swell the colossal power of tfce 
North * New Mexico and Arizona will now be thrown between the 'free soil 
States formed out of the territories of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choetaws and Chicka- 
saws, on the east, the ' free soil' States of California on the west, and the Jree States 
of Mexico on the South. Negro-slave property in neither could be held lor a day, 
and they too will inevitably become incorporated in the monstrous proportions of the 

North. * 

Loss of Arkansas and Iexas. 

" In the next place, the loss of Kansas, of Missouri, of the Creek and Cherokee 
domain of the Choctaw and Chickasaw domain, of New Mexico, and of Arizona, 
bein-r a loss of six States rightfully belonging and legitimately attached to the slave- 
holding interest of the South, will involve the loss of Arkansas another slavehold- 
in<> State and of Texas, warranted by the law of annexation, to be divided into five 
slaveholding States, thus making a positive loss to the South of twelve States, wind, 
in justice, as well as through a wise and politic statesmanship, should be saved to the 
slaveholdino- interest, looking to the future prosperity and welfare of the whole coun- 
trv North as well as South, and subjecting to Abolitionism the entire western shore 
of the Mississippi river, reaching beyond the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, 
and down to the Rio Grande, and convulsing Louisiana with servile war, saturating 
her soil with blood. AVith Kansas and Missouri abolitionized, and lying on the north 
and northwestern boundaries of Arkansas, and with Abolition States formed out of 
the Creek and Cherokee domain, and that of the Choetaws and Chickasaws, on her 
western limits, Arkansas will be circumstanced precisely as Missouri had been previ- 
ously circumstanced, and negro slavery will be lost to Arkansas, m the same manner 
it had been lost to Missouri. No obstacle will now exist to the progress of the Aboli- 
tion agrarian horde of the North, through Texas to the line of the Rio Grande. The 
great Itate, in point of geographical extent, sVdivided into three parts, Beginning 
on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the first division is a vast coast prairie, extending 
four hundred miles in length, from the Sabine to the Rio Grande with an average 
width of forty miles. In addition to the two rivers mentioned the Brazos, the Colo- 
rado, the Guadalupe, the Trinity, the San Antonio and the Nueces, make their exit 
to the Gulf across this region, and within its bounds their waters may be said to be 
navieable. The soil is a black alluvial, the deposits of unnumbered ages, formed by 
the recession of the waters of the Gulf, and for productiveness, equal to any in the 
world Under a just expansion of the slaveholdmg, with the nou-slaveholding inter- 
ests of the country, here alone would be garnered as much cotton and sugar as are 
now obtained from the entire Union. The second division extends along the Red 
River and its streams, covering a space as large as that occupied by \ nguua, and 
consists of a chocolate colored soil, well adapted to tobacco and the cereals, and fav- 
orably comparing with the richest grain-growing and tobacco lands oi the earth, lho 

*'• If the New York Tribune issued on November 7, the day of the last Slate election in' 
New York, be referred to, it will be seen that that journal congratulate. Us own part, 
upoT, the '• forcible seizure of Kansas," and ur.es the same thing to be done with the 
Creet Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw country and New Mexico, i he preachers ol 
New En "land are now actively engaged in the Indian country striving to produce between 
he Indians bloody and exterminating strife ; by exciting their congregations "gainst the 
1 veholders among them as - God abandoned, doomed to hell, and unfitto hve. I, blood 
could be once shed" extermination would be the result under the lex JoWthal prevails, 
and thus the country would be left to the occupation of the ' Emigrant Aid boc.et.es. '• 



12 

third division embraces the remainder of the State, in extent, four times the magni- 
tude of Virginia, reposing on the upper waters of the rivers mentioned, and consist- 
ing, for the most part, of an elevated, rolling, and perfectly salubrious country. 
There is not to be found a region more productive in the natural grasses than this, 
and, consequently, it is not excelled for stock-raising purposes. Thus, in this mag- 
nificent State, spread out on the map, beneath a temperate sun, and in the midst of 
a genial clime, a glory and a blessing to the family of man, if left to legitimate and 
unforced settlement. But under the progress of precedent events and results, it must 
be seen that, with non-slaveholding States, formed out of the Indian Territory on her 
north, and out of New Mexico and Arizona on her west, while Mexico occupied her 
south, the second and third divisions will rapidly fill up with a free soil population, 
controlling the slaveholding population of the Jirst division, and impelling and precipi- 
tating the negro slaves of that region into the ocean.* 

Condition of Louisiana. 

The situation of Louisiana will now be deplorable indeed. Surrounded on all 
sides save the east, by emancipated States, and with the negro slaves of Missouri, of 
Arkansas, of the Creek and Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw domain, and of Texas, 
all massed down upon her as they were sold out, and placed beyond due restraint, 
because of the facilities afforded them to escape punishment by fleeing into the adjoin- 
ing "free" States, and because of the magnitude of their number over that of her 
white citizens, Louisiana will inevitably fall a prey to internecine servile wars, so 
terrible that to live in their midst would be worse than to die, at the bare contempla- 
tion of which the mind shudders with horror. 

"Nor are we permitted, yet, to rest our pen, in tracing the sequences that will 
follow to the South, from the loss of Kansas as a negro slaveholding State. 

" While events are. progressing to the fatal issues described, on the west of the 
Mississippi, others no less disastrous will be concomitantly evolved to the east, of that 
river. An extensive journey recently made through the Southern States, has 
enabled me to observe ocularly the fact, that a non-slaceholding population, chiefly 
from the North, entertaining, for the most part, undisguised Abolition sentiments, pre- 
dominates in the Slates of Delaware and Maryland; and that a numerous body of 
Northern bom men inhabit the northern and toestern counties of Virginia, the eastern 
ami northern counties of Kentucky, the western counties of North < 'arolina, the eastern 
and middle counties of Tennessee, and are to be found among the merchants of the 
cities of the Gulf coast, among the managers and employees of the Southern railroads, 
steamboats ami hotels, and among the corps editorial, a majority of whom are Northern 
nun holding, at present, suppressed sentiments, adverse to negro slavery, but ready, 
so soon as they attain to a popular majority, to speak out openly, in cooperating with the 
Abolitionists of the North. 

Loss of Maryland and Delaware. 

" But it is my province here to look to facts as they are, rather than as I would 
they were ; and looking to the facts before us, it is obvious that both Delaware and 
Mainland, in a few years, must yield to the abolition demon. The prestige of the 
South and the integrity of their institutions being invaded and destroyed in the 
manner indicated, the constant accumulation of Northern population, and concomi- 
tant accretion of abolition sentiment, in Delaware and Maryland, will compel them 
both to emancipation. Delaware, how, is only in name a slave State, and negro, 
slavery in Maryland is almost confined to two congressional districts, at the same 
time that she numbers an immense mass of 'free negros,' as a fruitful source of 



*•' Western Texas is already seriously threatened with heing formed into a non-slave- 
holding State. The reprerentatives ot' Texas entertain decidedapprehensions of the fact, 
and the Brownsville afl'air simply grows out ot the fact that the Americans on the line of 
the Nueces, and between that liver and the Rio Grande, clu'cjly /'rum t/u North, have driven 
out the original Mexican inhabitants, now citizens ot the United States, in order to get 
possession of their lands. 1 have had ocular demonstration, that a non-slaveholding pop- 
ulation throughout 1 hat country are seeking to cut out a non-slaveholdiiig Slate in that 
direction, south of slavery."' 



13 

future insurrectionary trouble.* With the loss to the South of Kansas and Missouri 
on the west, and of Delaware and Maryland on the east, while the abolition States of 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois occupied the north, Virginia and Kentucky 
on the west, east and north, Avill become the recipients of an overwhelming non- 
slaveholdinsr population, quickly swelling the numbers of non-slaveholders in those 
two States,^into a ruling majority, and changing, as if by magic, their present deep- 
ly-felt, but only whispered, sentiments adverse to negro slavery, into loud thiradera 
of indignation at the existence of the institution, and stern notes of defiance to the 
slaveholders. Virginia and Kentucky will thus be compelled to send out, or sell out, 
their slaves to the planting States, and surrender to the Moloch of abolition. To 
say nothing as to the effects of these things on the eight remaining slaveholding 
States, although it is evident they would be but as smoking flax in the fire, it must 
be seen that, through the present loss of Kansas to the interests of the South, and the 
after-continuance of the Union, the South will lose sixteen Stales, legally, geographi- 
cally and legitimately, their oion, he shorn of their strength and glory and reduced to a 
cypher, with the whole burden of Resistance to Black Republican tyranny, wielding all 
the powers of an immense empire, resting on the planting States alone — a load so oner- 
ous that the combined powers of Europe, then in alliance, could hardly enable them to 
bear successfully. 

" Nor yet are these all the bitter fruits of flie Union that the South will reap from 
the loss of Kansas, the more especially if the Black Republican party shall come to 
grasp the government with Seward as President. The North will be acquiring yearly 
new States from the territories, all of which are subject either to the law of popular 
sovereignty, or the simple majority rule, the local Mexican law, or to the Wilmot 
Proviso^ as we have shown in the ' Territorial Status', so that before all the sequences 
described are wrought out, the non-slaveholding power in the government ivill become 
sufficiently great to^amend the Constitution, under the terms of the instrument itself, 
investing Congress with full control over the subject of general emancipation. Already 
with a majority of States in the Senate, and a preponderating voice in the House of 
Representatives, Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas are presented for admission as ' free 
States.' Others of similar character will rapidly follow from Washington, Dacotah, 
New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska and Superior. In a single lifetime, the constitu- 
tional requirements as to amendments ivill be met. 

" The mind accustomed to trace premises to their consistent conclusions, and to 
consider lines of causation with an analytic eye, cannot fail to see this to be no 
exaggeration. The Black Republican party, now in full possession of the North, 
deefare themselves to be crusaders in the cause of negro emancipation ; and I have 
heard leading Democrats even, men of character and renown at the North, assert, 
that 'they had carefully traced out the question with the map before them, and that in 
fifteen years there would be seventy non-slaveholding States to not more than ten slave- 
holding States in the Union. And a distinguished gentleman of this party, a recent 
representative in Congress, from the city of Philadelphia, on Independence square, 
within the echoes of that hall where the declaration of our rights and the Constitu- 
tion of the United States both had their birth, pandering to the general sentiments 
around him, asseverated, in allusion, we presume, to the ordinances of 1784-7, the 
Mi 
18; 
gov.. 

party thus powerful, and the Democratic party thus demoralized, where bay the 
South look for safety, friendship and support in the Union V Let them, tor the 
future, look only to themselves. 'Who would be free, themselves must, strike the 
blow.' Let them listen no more to the serpent voice of Compromise, neither tru-i to 



tissouri Compromise of 1819-20, the Wilmot Proviso of 1848, the Compromises of 
350, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, that 'every abolition triumph und( r the 
>n ni ment had been achieved by the Democratic party.' .With the Black Republican 



* "There are ninety thousand free negros in Maryland, and an immense number 
Northern men filled with abolition sentiments. The City of Baltimore, in the hands ol 
'Know Nothings', and represented in Congress by such men as Davis and Harris, who 
cooperate with the Black-Republicans, may be made the grand centre, at any moment, of 
the most bloodv and terrible foray on the part of the Abolitionists, against the counties ol 
the eastern and western shore that are slaveholding, lor the purpose of expelling slavery 
from the State. If John Brown had made Baltimore the seat «»i lus operations, and di- 
rected his movements against the country south of Baltimore, on both sides ol the bay, 
we are not prepared to .say what the consequences and results would have been. 



14 

filibustering raids tor the acquisition of additional Southern territory. Let them 
firmly hold that which is now theirs, and boldly strike for that which should be 
theirs. Above all, let them never abandon Kansas as a negro-slaveholding State 
and as their /«.s7 barrier, their last bulwark, and their last outpost against Northern 
encroachment and aggression. Then, perhaps they may save the sixteen States 
they will otherwise lose through the loss of Kansas and the continuation, of the Union 
and thereby be enabled to advance with equal strides with the North. A course of 
firmness, of decision, of resisting determination and courageous action, yielding noth- 
ing either to the spirit of peace or the demon of war, is the only course by which the 
South may win or hold territorial rights, enforce the observance of the Constitution 
and the laws, erect a party on which they may repose with safety, and maintain their 
interests in the Union. Any other course is an abandonment of principle to false 
expediency, is an abnegation of self-respect, is the course of weakness and cowardice, 
of folly and poltroonery, and will court danger to pursue them, to overwhelm and to 
destroy them. Think not that Kansas can be lost to the cause of the South, and the 
South be saved from absorption by the North in the Union. If effect harmoniously 
follows cause, if the sequents of a mathematical problem flow consequentially from 
their antecedents to their ultimate conclusions, all the Southern States mentioned, one 
by one after the other, and all the deplorable results indicated, step by step in regular 
gradation, will march in funeral procession along the line of destiny, attendant upon 
the obsequies of the South, depleted by the leach of ' Compromise' and then struck 
dead by the galvanic shock of '■popular sovereignty and the majority rule?" 

But Ave wrote and spoke in vain. In vain we endeavored to lay bare the issues 
between the North and the South, in their whole magnitude, in a speech delivered 
at Mobile during the fall of 18">7, addressed to the " Slaveholders of Alabama irit/i- 
out distinction of party." The leaders of the South continued absorbed in schemes of 
personal ambition, and were circumscribed in their vision by the prospect of a mission 
to France, or a seat in the Cabinet, or the shadowy chance of a Presidential nomi- 
nation in 1860. The comprehensive mind of Seward alone became impressed with 
the full aspect of the times. He not only saw that Kansas was the great turning 
point of the future — and hence countenanced and defended the seizure of that territory 
by abolition outlaws through force of arms — but also perceived that all the sequences 
detailed would constitutionally follow, and therefore, that the South, if the abolitionists 
proper proved icise, would never be furnished legitimate ground or legal justification 
for disunion. 

Slavery can be abolished " Constitutionally" in TEN Years. 

Presuming the Union to continue, the thoughtful questioner of events cannot doubt 
that, in ten -years, the North will hold, sectional!//, the requisite constitutional number 
of States, senators and representatives, to enable them to propose and adopt amend- 
ments to the Constitution as they may please. The language of the Constitution upon 
the subject reads: "The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses may deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, which shall be valid to ;ill 
' intents and purposes, as parts of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of 
three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof." Con- 
sidering Kansas as already admitted, and Delaware as already attached to the North- 
ern section, the Union stands composed of twenty non-slavebolding to fourteen 
slaveholding Stales, giving the first forty and the latter t/venty-eigl/t senators, and the 
first one hundredand forty^nine and the latter eighty-nine representatives. The gain 

of tiro free States by the North, and the loss of two slave .States by the South, will 
increase the first to twenty-four States with forty-eight senators, and reduce the latter 
to twelve States with twenty-four senators which, at once, secures the requisite major- 
ity in the Senate to propose amendments. With a start of sixty majority in the 
House, and a white population in the proportion of eighteen millions to six millions, 
it cannot lie long before the North shall obtain the requisite vote in the House. But 
three-fourths of the States are necessary to ratify proposed amendments. Will this 
be SO difficult for the North to secure out of the immense territories altogether and 
exclusively at their disposal, through a large majority in both Houses or under the 
auspices of a Black Republican President ? Would it not be an easy task for Sew- 
ard, under these circumstances, to cut up the territories into from twenty to fifty 






15 

States, and to bring them into the Union with fractional populations, even, so as to 
procure the constitutional number required? The question presents a fact too plain 
for argument, and the treasons of Kansas and Harper's Ferry do not permit the mind 
to halt in its conviction because of the immoral nature of the proceeding. But with- 
out this, recurring, to our argumentative appeal above quoted, as submitted to the 
senators and representatives from the South during the Kansas issue, it must be seen 
that the ceaseless accumulation of Northern population, and the legitimate accessions 
of Northern States from the territories, combined with the rapid subversion of South- 
ern States in the Union, will surely accomplish, in this respect, within the time 
designated, all the aspiring anticipations of Seward, and chain the South to the tri- 
umphant car of his ambition.* 

It is only necessary to give to these extracts the careful examination 
which the profound importance of the question is entitled to, for any 
reflecting mind to be convinced that the Abolitionized Statps will have 
the power, within a very few years, to alter the Constitution in any way 
they jjlease; and so fulfil the intentions of Mr. Seward and his Black 
Republican colleagues, of "abolishing slavery in all the States in a con- 
stitutional manner." Whether this shall be allowed to be done at all, will 
depend upon the South: or whether it shall be done' within the time indi- 
cated by this Virginia writer, (ten years,) or whether it be delayed some 
five or ten years longer, does not affect the question of their power, 
sooner or later, to do it. That they will do it within the shortest, practica- 
ble time, we may certainly expect, when we consider that it has been for 
years the object of their earnest labor and ardent desires; and when it is 
considered that we are regarded by them as powerless in their hands and 
as too cowardly to resist. 

Slavery may be abolished by "Law," in the Forts, Dockyards, &c. 

But, if we consent to submit to a hostile government to make laws for 
us, there is a measure which does not require an alteration of the Consti- 
tution, to be put in force against us, but within any five days after Mr. 
Lincoln's inauguration into office, may be passed through its three read- 
ings and its committees, and stand out upon the statute book a duly 
enacted ''law/' bristling with the most formidable armory of mischief — 
encouraging discontent and insubordination among the slaves, and entail- 
ing incalculable losses upon their owners. I allude to a law "to abolish 
slavery in the forts, arsenals, dockyards, and other places in the South, 
where Congress has exclusive jurisdiction." 

This has long been a cherished scheme of the Abolitionists for annoy- 
ance and injury to the South, but they have hitherto never had the power 
to carry it into effect. What does it mean? Their aim is not, surely, 
limited to the emancipation of the few slaves who may be found in those 
places, in the capacity of body-servants to the officers and their families, 
amounting in numbers, at most, only to a few dozen negros. Their 
scheme is much deeper, more mischievous, and fraught with infinite dan- 
ger to the South. It is, by abolishing slavery in those places, to impart 
to them the character of free soil territory — to make our forts, arsenals and 
dockyards, the asylums and harbors, of refuge to every disaffected slave 
who may retreat to them, and who, being within the jurisdiction of a flree 
soil territory, may claim his freedom in the same manner as is now Aonc 
in free soil Massachusetts or Vermont. Cast the eye over the map, from 
Baltimore to Galveston, in Texas, and note the forts, navy yards and 

*See Appendix, C. 



16 

arsenals which dot the whole South, and tlien contemplate the conse- 
quences of making all these the asylums for deluded or disaffected slaves, 
and where papers of emancipation were to be had only for the trouble of 
going there to receive them. What subordination could be preserved 
among the slaves within the cities of Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, 
Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, or upon the plantations for a 
hundred miles around, of which each of these was a focus — if the slave, 
for any fancied grievance, could leave his master and find security, and 
release from his service, within the walls of a fort. Any sudden petu- 
lance occasioned by some mild, but well-deserved rebuke or punishment, 
would be resented upon the master; and a walk of twenty minutes to 
some contiguous dockyard, or a voyage of a few miles in a paddling canoe, 
to some fort within sight, would take him to free soil, where the master 
would be powerless in retaking him. 

Slave could not be Recovered. 

But some innocent might say, he ought to be given up. By whom? 
Is it expected that it will be done by Abolition officers, commanding Abo- 
lition soldiers, all selected by an Abolition President and Commander-in- 
Chief, for the express purpose of enforcing the policy of the law, and not 
giving him up. 

Another innocent may urge that he must forcibly be arrested and re- 
turned to his master. By what process? The Fugitive Slave law (that 
delusion and snare,) will have been repealed; for who believes that it will 
be allowed to remain upon the Statute book, six months, after the Black 
Republicans shall have got possession of the Government. The only 
remaining civil proeess is that through the State Courts of the South. But 
the very purpose of the law wa$ to emancipate the slave, and deprive the 
master of his use; and there stands the fort which shelters him, manned 
with Abolitionists to carry out this purpose, and bristling with cannon 
frowning upon the Sheriff and his posse. The State now in her capacity 
of a sovereign, must interpose; or make the humiliating confession before 
the world that she is incompetent to protect her own citizens from insult 
and injustice. How immeasurably better for her, had she taken this step 
from the outset, by throwing off the authority of that hostile Government, 
before it had made these dangerous lodgments within her boundaries, or 
before she had conferred upon it the right, by having submitted to its rule, 
to pass laws so ruinous to our safety and honor! 

No State of the South can permit this. 

But no State of the South could, consistently with her own dignity, and 
with the duty she owes of protection to her citizens., permit such a law to 
take effect within her bounds. To allow these nests of Abolitionism to be 
established within her population, from which, as radii from so many 
centres, "under-ground railroads" (so called) might diverge to every city, 
town, and plantation within a hundred miles or more around, bearing our 
deluded slaves to these dockyards and forts; then to be made free, and 
thence to be transferred to the free soil North, where, after the fugitive 
slave law is abolished, concealment and "under-ground railroads" would 
then no longer be necessary, but the absconding slave would walk abroad 
in open day — to allow such a law (to be followed by such consequences,) 
to operate within the boundaries of any Southern State, would, I say, be 



17 

equivalent to a declaration on her part, that she was unable or unwilling 
to protect the slave property of her citizens, and that they were at the 
mercy of every daring spoliator and fanatic. Abolition of slavery would, 
in such cases, already have begun by this law of an Abolition Congress ; 
and it would not be necessary to wait the brief respite of ten years to do 
it '< constitutionally." That the Abolitionists do not limit their views (as 
some might try to persuade themselves,) to the paltry effects of emanci- 
pating the few slaves before alluded to, which may now be found in these 
forts and dockyards — on which supposition " the play would not be worth 
the candle" — but that they intend to extract from that law the ruinous 
consequences, such as I have described, is sufficiently proved by the 
earnest zeal with which they have always pressed for the passage of such 
a law. Let the South, then, with equal earnestness, be prepared to meet 
this formidable danger. 

HOW CAN THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE FoRTS, DOCKYARDS, &C, BE 

AVOIDED ? 

How can this be most wisely done — in the Union, or out of the Union? 
If in the Union, it is not too much to say, that no matter, through what 
several processes the controversy may pass, (and it will be venturing little 
to predict that our Abolition enemies will be triumphant in all), it must, 
in the last resort, terminate in a collision of force between the two govern- 
ments; — that is, if the Southern State really intends to protect her citizens 
in the possession of their slaves. Thus will come upon us the " collision" 
which is so much dreaded by the timorous, that they seem willing to post- 
pone, or avoid it altogether, by every unmanly delay or suicidal compro- 
mise; — a "collision" which, if Ave remain in the Union, may be precipi- 
tated upon us within any brief period after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration 
into office, allowing only time enough for such a law to be prepared and 
enacted ; and lastly a " collision" which we shall have to meet in the worst 
form, in which we can join battle with our enemies — that, in which a 
State, after having submitted to the detestable rule of her enemies, is after- 
wards found in armed resistance to that government; — under which cir- 
cumstances, the words "treason," and " rebel," and "rebellion," have an 
intelligible and very ominous signification. 

But if we consider the consequences of such a law, in its effects upon 
us, as sovereign and independent States, having no connexion with the 
abolitionized government which has passed it, all these dangers instantly 
vanish. Having withdrawn from their government, they have no right any 
longer to make laws for us. Having withdrawn the authority which we 
imparted to them over certain territory, for friendly and federal purposes, 
and having, in the exercise of our undoubted right as a sovereign, spread our 
jurisdiction over every inch of ground within our territorial limits, they have 
no longer any territory within our boundaries over which they can execute 
their laws. We stand to them, then, in all political relations, as France 
does to England — independent and sovereign; in which coercion and arm- 
ed collision may mean war, but in which the words " treason" and " rebel- 
lion" cease to have any application or meaning. 

If, then, the South would escape the dire effects of the abolition of slav- 
ery, whether it is to be inflicted upon us by the comparatively tardier course 
of a change of the Constitution, or may be begun within a very k^w months 
by law, abolishing it in the forts, dock-yards, &c, — the best attitude in 
which she can meet the danger is* that of a separate and independent gov- 
d2 



18 

eminent and as having control of the subject, and ready to deal with it 
a friendly and not hostile spirit. 

And to those who are so timorous lest the secession of one or more 
States of the South might provoke collision, it would be well to suggest 
the inquiry whether such collision would not arise more certainly, and just 
as soon, within the Union, from the necessity of defending our citizens 
against a law so ruinous as the one for abolishing slavery in our forts, 
magazines and dockyards. Considered, then, in the light of a mere timid 
policy, nothing can be gained, whilst numberless advantages will be lost 
by postponing the time of vigorous resistance ; especially as the question 
must be decided within a very few years, whether we shall secede and fight 
for our rights, or allow slavery to be abolished by an alteration of the Con- 
stitution. 

The Abolition of Slavery ! ! Consider the words ! 

The abolition of slavery in all the South, with all its unspeakable 
calamities, and its incalculable losses! What a price the cowardly sub- 
missionist is willing to pay for a few years of ignoble sloth, vouchsafed to 
him by his enemies! And how stupendous is his folly, which, after hav- 
ing paid such a price, finds that he has obtained, not a release, but only a 
brief respite ; and that he must, at last, encounter " secession," " collis- 
ion," and "coercion," under much worse circumstances, or give up his 
slaves to emancipation, his family to degradation, his property to ruin 
and himself to poverty. 

The abolition of slavery ! Have any of you, gentlemen, deliberately 
reflected upon the import of the thing, and run it out, through all its sad 
dening consequences? I ask the question because I have seen so many 
people speak of it as a thing which is to come ; but with a species of tor- 
pid insensibility, as if it was to come without consequences. Let us, then, 
bestow a few thoughts upon what the "Abolition of Slavery" means. 

LOSS OF ALL AGRICULTURAL SLAVE LABOR. 

In the first place, it means the annihilation and end of all negro labor 
(agricultural especially) over the whole South. [ mean that regular, 
steady, continuous labor from the beginning to the end of the year, and 
year after year, without which agriculture in the South cannot be carried 
on successfully, if it can be carried on at all. I am now, gentlemen, 
addressing an association of planters, who know that this proposition is 
true without dispute. Plantation work is, you know, composed of a suc- 
cession of employments, each depending upon the other, like the several 
links of a chain 5— the neglect of any one of which employments (like 
the breaking of one link in the chain), renders useless all the work which 
has previously been performed, and entails a loss of the whole crop. As 
planters, no one knows better than you, how useless it would be to plough, 
to dig, and to prepare your land, if you had not labor afterwards to plant 
it— how useless, again, to prepare the land, and plant it, without the labor 
necessary afterwards to hoe and cultivate it; and how useless it would be 
to do all those several works, if there were no labor at command to gather 
the crop. Ii is the absurd notion of the pragmatical, conceited Abolition- 
ist, who things he knows more of other people's business than they know 
themselves.^- to fancy that agriculture, at the South, can be carried on as 



19 

well with hired (and therefore irregular) labor, as with compulsory labor. 
It is from acting- upon this senseless theory, that all negro labor has been 
destroyed in the British West Indies, in Peru, and everywhere else, where 
the theory has been tried, and that those colonies are reduced to poverty 
and Avorthlessness. " It is a fact," says the London Times, in reviewing 
the late work of Mr. Trollope, on the British West Indies, — " it is a fact 
that half the sugar estates and more than half the coffee plantations have 
o-one back into a state of bush, and a great portion of those who are now 
growing canes in Jamaica^are persons who have lately bought the estates 
for the value of the copper in the sugar boilers, and of the metal in the 
rum stills." Such is the enormous depreciation of real estate in the West 
Indies, by the emancipation of the slaves, and by substituting in the place 
of compulsory slave labor, the irregular, hired labor of the freed negro, 
which, from its uncertainty, is no labor at all suitable to the planter. 
What would your condition be with such laborers, if, in mid-valley of 
your summer work, when the crop, and the grass too, were in vigorous 
growth, your hired, freed-negro-gang (your " equals" and " fellow-citi- 
zens," by the "grace" of law and the Abolitionists) should throw their 
hoes upon their shoulders, and say to you that they would work no 
longer, except you trebled or quadrupled their wages? Why, the only 
wise thing which you could do, would be, at once, to give up the crop, 
which perhaps would not pay the expenses. And so it would be at any 
other stage of its cultivation. 

It is undoubtedly true, then, that the abolition of slavery at the South 
means the annihilation of all negro labor; and with the loss of that labor, 
the end of all crops; and with loss of crops, the end of all income to the 
planters. 

Loss of 9,000,000,000 of property to the Whites. 

It means, next, a loss to the planters of the South of, at least, (§54,000,- 
000,000,) four thousand millions of dollars, by having this labor taken 
from them : and a loss, in addition, of ($5,000,000,000) five thousand 
millions of dollars more, in lands, mills, machinery, and other great inter- 
ests, -which will be rendered valueless by the want of slave labor to cul- 
tivate the lands, and the loss of the crops which give to those interests 
life and prosperity. 

The reign of Negro sloth and idleness. 

It means, again, the turning loose upon society, without the salutary 
restraints to which they are now accustomed, more than (4,000,000) four 
millions of a very poor and ignorant population, (as the peasantry of most 
countries are,) to ramble in idleness over the country until their wants 
should drive most of them, first to petty thefts, and afterwards to the 
bolder crimes of robbery and murder; or until their excesses, their 
imprudence, their filth, and starvation, shall bring pestilence amongst them 
and sweep them off* by thousands. Improvident to the last degree, as 
they are, and accustomed to have all their wants carefully attended to, 
day by day, would find them without provision ; which, night by night, 
they must supply by the plunder of slock, and of every other thing which 
they could carry oft'; until the country would be laid waste and impover- 
ished by their interminable aggressions. 

The equality of the negro with the white rack. 

But the abolition of slavery means, further, that the negro is not only 



20 

to be made free, but equal also to his former master, in political and civil 
rights ; and, as far as it can be done, in social privileges. The planter 
and bis family are not only to be reduced to poverty and want, by the 
robbery of his' property, but to complete the refinement of the indignity, 
thev are to be degraded to the level of an inferior race, be jostled by 
them in their paths, and intruded upon, and insulted over by rude and 
vulgar upstarts. Who can describe the loathsomeness of such an inter- 
course j — the constrained intercourse between refinement reduced to pov- 
erty, and swaggering vulgarity suddenly elevated to a position which it 
is not prepared for? It has heretofore resulted in a war between the 
races, and the extermination of one or the other; or it has become so 
intolerable, that expatriation has been preferred as an evil more easily to 
be borne. 

The abolition of Slavery; with "compensation" for the Slaves 

I have considered that the abolition of slavery, when it shall be inflicted 
upon the South, by a change of the Constitution — whether it is to take 
place in ten, or twelve, or fifteen years — will be done absolutely, without 
anything to mitigate it, and without any compensation to the owners of the 
slaves. There is nothing to encourage the expectation that it will be done 
in any other way. " Python," however, in the article in Be Bow's Re- 
view, from which we have already made extracts, thinks that they will be 
"bouo-ht" (or rather taken) from the planters, by the Government, at a 
hundred dollars per head; retained by the Government for ten years, as 
" apprentices," and hired out, to " pay back their purchase money.'' Un- 
der this more mitigated form of abolition (in which, however, I think he 
will find himself mistaken), he nevertheless portrays, with his graphic 
pen, the gloomy consequences, in language following: 

"In a pecuniary point of view, the Southern planters are, for the most part, in a 
similar condition to the planters in the British West India Colonies, prior to the British 
act of emancipation. That is to say, almost every estate at the South, now valued at 
two hundred thousand dollars, equally divided between land and machinery on the 
one side, and negro slaves and live stock on the other, is incumbered with a debt, by 
-way of mortgage or otherwise, of at least twenty thousand dollars. The average price 
of one hundred dollars per head allowed by the Government for the slaves, being only 
one-tendi part of their real value, will reduce the one hundred thousand dollars of per- 
sonal estate to ten thousand dollars ; and as this sum would not be payable in cash, 
but only in Government bonds, bearing legal interest, and could not be made avail- 
able as cash, except at a great sacrifice, the real sum derived to the planter, for prac- 
tical purposes, would be simply the annual interest on ten thousand dollars, or an 
income tax of six hundred dollars per year. The indebtedness or incumbrances of 
the planter will now fall entirely on his rer.l estate and machinery ;— and how will 
they be effected ? The planter being alike unaccustomed to the ' apprentice system,' 
and unwilling to hire as apprentices, those whom he had owned as slaves, will be loth 
to en(ra<>-e from the agents of the Government the requisite force for the cultivation 
of his lands and the employment of his machinery. Least of all could he, grounded 
as he must necessarily be in the mild morals of the patriarchal system of slavery and 
labor subsisting at the South, reduce himself to countenance and practice a harsh code 
and procedurelike that eliminated by Great Britain and France from the driving sys- 
tem of labor, associated with that worse than Egyptian bondage, the ' Apprentice 
system.' His lands and machinery will thus be, unavoidably and immediately, with 
the fact of emancipation, reduced in a similar ratio to his personal estate, and sold 
under the sheriff's hammer, as was the case in the British Colonies. His estate of 
two hundred thousand dollars, enabling him to live in affluence and to educate his 
children hi mental and physical refinement, will thus be curtailed to twenty thousand 



21 . 

dollars, one half of which will be unavailable, leaving his indebtedness to swallow up 
his last dollar. Or if, perchance, he should be free from indebtedness, he will never 
consent to the new order of things, but will rather sell his lands and machinery for 
anything to be obtained for them, and fly from the graves of his ancestors to some 
unknown spot in the Avilderness, where his susceptibilities cannot be wounded. But 
whether his lands and machinery be sold out by the sheriff, or he shall voluntarily 
sell thejn, the end to him will still be the same. From wealth he will be reduced to 
want, and his children to beggary. His family will become dispersed ; the places that 
once knew him will know him no longer ; and his memories, even, will perish, save as 
future ages may darkly divine them, from the page of history." 

To the above, '' Python " adds the following note : 

" The author has now in his possession a vial of laudanum, which he took from the 
oldest son of a former Governor of the Island of Barbadoes, in order to prevent him 
from committing suicide, by reason of the poverty to which he had been reduced by 
the British act of emancipation. His father was Governor of the Island of Barba- 
does at the time the act of emancipation went into effect. At that time he was the 
wealthiest planter in the Island. His estate was somewhat encumbered, but the 
encumbrance was not felt until emancipation. Then suddenly it swallowed up the 
whole estate, except a mere remnant. He died broken-hearted, and his son came to 
Philadelphia in search of employment. His little means failed him before he suc- 
ceeded, and with his last dime he determined to seek consolation in death. Beino- at 
the same boarding house with him, I prevented the catastrophe, and got him sent 
back to Barbadoes through the aid of several kind-hearted merchants, who traded 
with the Island, and knew his father well. This case directly illustrates the condi- 
tion to which the planters of the South and their children will be reduced by Black 
Republicanism, after its designs shall have been fulfilled." 

This, then, gentlemen, is the sad import of the i( abolition of slavery " 
in the South — the end of all negro labor; a jubilee of idleness, and a 
reign of sloth : until famine shall drive them to robbery, or scourge them 
with pestilence : nine thousand millions of property destroyed, belong- 
ing to the white race, in return for negro equality conferred upon the 
black race: a war of races; the subjection of one or the other; certain 
poverty to the whites; degradation, want, expatriation. 

The Effects of abolition in loss of incomes — To the Planter, Mer- 
chant, Factor, &c. 

Viewed in its merely pecuniary aspects, Ave have seen that it makes an 
end of crops and the incomes of planters. And as this is the great 
treasure-house from which all other interests draw their supplies, it mav 
be inquired, without crops what becomes of the factors, the railroads, the 
shipping, and all the interests dependent upon these. Without incomes 
to the planters, what becomes of the merchant, the machinist, the me- 
chanic? The planter would be too poor to buy the goods of the one, or 
to need or employ the services of the other; but all would sink into one 
common ruin. In speaking of these we have allusion only to those who, 
whether native born or adopted citizens, have cast in their lot with the 
South; who are bound permanently to the soil by their property or the 
ties of family, and who have made it the permanent home of their choice. 

We allude not to those Northern merchants from Abolitionized States 
who leave their Northern homes for the winter merely to do business at the 
South, intending, with the return of the swallows, to go back to their 
Northern homes, taking with them all they have gleaned at the South, and 
spend these copious profits among their Abolition friends and neighbors. 
We allude not to those adventurers who annually come on to the South 
from those regions of fanaticism, merely rent a room or store for a few 



22 

months, in one of our towns, and then, from the sign ot a " Little Shoe," 
or "Big Boot," or under the firm of "Sumner Brother," or, " Seward, 
Giddings & Lincoln," spread out their goods upon the counter to extract 
money from our people, whilst they are spreading Abolitionism in the 
back room by lectures and pictures. 

We allude to none of such people among our merchants as being likely 
to be injured with us by the Abolition of slavery. They have no sympa- 
thies in common with us — no ties which bind them to the South except 
the most fragile threads of making money out of us. They are indifferent 
to the honor, the safety, the permanent welfare of the South. All that 
they concern themselves about is to prevent anything from being 
done which may interrupt their business of making money out of 
us. Accordingly, upon every effort of the South to breast the dan- 
gers which beset us, and break the fetters with which we are bound, 
we find them at all elections banded with the submissionists, multi- 
plying the alarms of the timid, and pulling the South down to non- 
resistance and dishonor. Abolition of slavery (if they do not at heart 
desire it) affects them very slightly. Whilst the merchant, the mechanic, 
the machinist whose home is the South, must sink into the common ruin 
which Abolition of slavery will bring upon the South, this Northern mer- 
chant has nothing to do but to gather up his profits, pack up his boxes, 
betake himself to some steamer, and in five days, or less, he is at home 
among his Abolition friends, but our bitter enemies! 



The Effects upon the Non-Slaveholder. 

We forbear to notice the effect of the abolition of slavery upon the 
Banks, Insurance Companies, Railroads, and all other corporations, de- 
pending upon a rich and flourishing country for their own prosperity. 
But in noticing its effects upon the different classes and interests in the 
South, we should not omit to notice its effects upon the non-slaveholding 
portion of our citizens. 

Accompanied as that measure is to be, by reducing the two races to an 
equality — or, in other words, in elevating the negro slave to an equality 
with the white man — it will be to the non-slaveholder, equally with the 
largest slaveholder, the obliteration of caste and the deprivation of impor- 
tant privileges. The color of the white man is now, in the South, a title 
of nobility in his relations as to the negro; and although Cuffy or Sambo 
may be immensely his superior in wealth, may have his thousands 
deposited in bank, as some of them have, and may be the owner of many 
slaves, as some of them are, yet the poorest non-slaveholder, being a white 
man, is his superior in the eye of the law ; may serve and command in 
the militia; may sit upon juries, to decide upon the rights of the wealthi- 
est in the land ; may give his testimony in Court, and may cast his vote, 
equally with the largest slaveholder, in the choice of his rulers. In no 
country in the world does the poor white man, whether slaveholder or 
non-slaveholder, occupy so enviable a position as in the Blaveholding 
States of the South. His color here admits him to social and civil privi- 
leges, which the white man enjoys nowhere else. In countries where 
negro slavery does not exist, (as in the Northern States of this Union and 
in Europe,) the most menial and degrading employments in society are 
filled by the white poor, who are hourly seen drudging in them. Poverty, 
then, in those countries, becomes the badge of inferiority, and wealth of 



23 



.distinction. Hence the arrogant airs which wealth there puts on, in its 
intercourse with the poor man. But in the Southern slaveholding States, 
where these menial and degrading offices are turned over to be performed 
exclusively by the negro "slave, the status and color of the black race 
becomes the badge of inferiority, and the poorest non-slaveholder may 
rejoice with the richest of his brethren of the white race, in the distinc- 
tion of his color. The poorest non-slaveholder, too, except as I have before 
said he be debased by his vices or his crimes, thinks and feels and acts 
as if he was, and always intended to be, superior to the negro. He may 
be poor, it is true ; but there is no point upon which he is so justly proud 
and sensitive as his privilege of caste; and there is nothing which he 
would resent with more fierce indignation than the attempt of the Aboli- 
tionist to emancipate the slaves and elevate the negros to an equality with 
himself and his family. The abolitionists have sent their emissaries 
amono- that class of our citizens, trying to debauch their minds by persuad- 
ing them that they have no interest in preventing the abolition of slavery. 
But they cannot deceive any, except the most ignorant and worthless. 
The intelligent among them are too well aware of the degrading conse- 
quences of abolition upon themselves and their families (such as I have 
described them), to be entrapped by their arts. They know that at the 
North and in Europe, where no slavery exists, where poverty is the mark 
of inferiority: where the negros have been put on an equality with the 
whites, and « money makes the man," although that man may be a 
ne gro— they know, 1 say, that there the white man is seen ivaitmg upon 
the negro ;— there he is seen obeying the negro as his ostler, his coach- 
man his servant and his bootblack. Knowing, then, these things, and 
that 'the abolition of slavery, and the reign of negro equality here, may 
degrade the white man in the same way as it has done m those countries, 
there is no non-slaveholder in the South, with the spirit of the white race 
in his bosom, who would not spurn with contempt this scheme of Yankee 
cunning and malice. 

The effect of Abolition upon the slaves themselves. 

The abolition of slavery over the South well deserves to be considered, 
also, in its effects upon the slaves themselves. And here it may be con- 
fidently predicted (what future history will certainly verify) that, should 
it ever take place, it will bring to them none of the advantages which 
our enemies so insanely anticipate. It has not benefitted them yet in any 
country in which it has been tried; except their relapsing into their 
native barbarism, sloth and besotted superstition and ignorance may be 
considered as an advantage. It has been a failure m 1 eru, m St. Uom- 
ino-o, in the British Colonies in the West lndies-than which no places 
on°the globe could have been selected more favorably for the experi- 
ment:— a tropical climate, requiring little expense for clothing, and afford- 
ing all the year round, a season for growing food; an immensely fertile 
soil, abounding in fruits of spontaneous growth, and yielding abundance 
of food with little labor; a powerful government giving them protection 
and preventing any interference from without in their progress in civil- 
ization- and the useful arts. Having entire control of the country, by n 
ratio in numbers of twentv-fivo, to one, over the whites, and, therefore, with 
nothino- within, to arrest their improvement, if there were in the nature of 
their r-e any self-acting principle for improvement ;— and yet what has 
been ttu -esult? In things praiseworthy, nothing ; absolutely nothing. 



24 

A CRIME AGAINST THE SLAVE AS WELL AS THE MASTER. 

What, then, can we expect from the emancipation of the slaves at the 
ciliu'on lnoto ^, ( ; f . t he S e advantages; and with all the natural imbe! 
Cilitj of he race still inherent in them ? With a climate comparatively 
harsh and ungenial, and with a soil yielding no food spontaneously and 
from which food and the means of clothing are to he extracted on ly'by 
o,l, with no intelligence to stimulate their industry and to direct their 
labor the consequences flowing from their idleness and improvidence wi 
be such as have been described,-starvation and disease. With The 

fflt M bUt 7 eT :T' mS Vlantation police withdraw from 
them slothful thriftless and without forethought, a very few years would 
find them a sottish, thieving ragged lazzaroni-, nuisance to IteLuZy, 
and the pests of every neighborhood. The swaggering insolence of thei 
newborn equality would soon make them intole7able, & to even the lore 
white man ; and when to this is added the festering irritation which sha 
have been kindled by their numerous vices and their crimes, there vi 
be a genera upnsmg among the whites of all classes to drive them ou 
of the country. Thus will commence that war between the races which 
every reflecting mind perceives to be inevitable, where an infe ior and 

t fhlltwn 6 ^ been f0t ' Ced UP ' ^ r ° rei ^ ^r^e, to an equah y 
with then former master race. In such a war, with the whites well 
armed and acquainted with their use, and double in number to the black 
who doubts the result? Horrible tragedies may be enacted in a few 
neighborhoods; but it must soon terminate in the indiscriminate slaughter^ 
of t he negros, by tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, until they 
shall be eiUier exterminated, or driven out of the country. The late in ur 
£'* ^d- comes in here, as an illustration! and proof of"" 
things. 1st, that an inferior and superior race cannot live together in the 
same country on terms of equality; and 2d, that in theft le for 
ascendancy although the inferior race . was, perhaps, fifty times more 
numerous, they were in due time completely subdued bydie superior 
intelligence and courage of the white nfah. And such will be the'aoom 
ot the negros of the South, in any wa, with the white*. How stupendous 
then is the folly and crime of the Abolitionist, who, under pretence of 
benefitting the slave, would plunge him down into so muse ao^a doom - 
See the folly and crime of such intermeddlings. He tin Is a save popu- 
lation, who, he works himself up to believe, must be very rn i sera ole^ but 
who in fact, areas comfortable and free of care as an/larorerl n the 
world. He carries fire, and poison, and pikes, and fire-arms, stealthily 
among tnem; and tries to persuade them to terminate their miseries by 
ns.ng up and murdering their masters. But they cannot be. persuaded 
ha they are miserable. A few sullen or credulous ones ma/b 'reluc- 
tantly persuaded to receive the arms or the poison; and as ong as the 

S?Sa^nt2 e7are - mC,ted ' foCOmrf {> a y beat a Stance, they may' 
with a loubled conscience, consent to keep them. But the slaves are no 

he brutes and savages which the Abolitionists suppose them to be God 

has placed consciences m their bosoms; they have the common feelSS 

of humanity m their hearts; many of them are governed by the hoi v ore 

cepts of Christianity, and understand the dutie & s of « obedience" wlfici 

God has enjoined that the slave show to their masters. Many of them 

again, have been brought up in the families of their masters; have K 

the companions of their childhood and youth, and have acquired a sincere 

frren'dsh.p and attachment for them; whilst there is scarcely one of 1 em 



25 

who cannot recall to mind man}- faults forgiven, and numerous favors con- 
ferred. No one, then, in the South, at least, is surprised that when the 
day draws near, when the dark and bloody deed is to be committed that 
some faithful friend among the slaves repudiates the plot, and discloses 
the treason; and that even those who have, at the beginning consented to 
receive the arms, now, with a stricken conscience, shudder to make use of 
them. It is only the Abolitionist who is surprised at such a termination 
of his diabolical plans. He thought that in dealing with slaves, he was 
dealing with brutes; he now finds that they are men, having in their 
hearts the feelings of humanity. 

But the deed has been done, and now the melancholy consequences are 
at hand ! The plot has been concocted, and the Abolitionist has involved 
in it many a poor slave who has thoughtlessly consented to join in it, and 
who has not afterwards withdrawn himself from it. The Abolitionist is 
arrested and hung; and with him, unhappily, the poor, deluded, ignorant 
slaves also, whom he has entrapped in his plot. Whilst their doom is but 
just, the slaves of the South, under the artful temptation of the Abolition- 
ists, are now, real objects of commiseration to the white race of the South. 
If let alone they would live with us all the days of their life in harmony, 
and with the kindliest good offices. I have not a distrust of them if left 
to themselves. The Abolitionist is the enemy of the master ; but he is 
the more deadly enemy to the poor slave who listens to his artful persua- 
sions. The late insurrections is Texas prove this. Whilst in that State, 
perhaps fifteen Abolitionists have been hung for planning these insurrec- 
tions, perhaps eighty, if not more, negros, who foolishly agreed to join 
them, have already also been hung; whilst not a slaveholder in Texas 
has had a hair on his head injured. The deaths and the misery have then 
fallen chiefly upon the deluded, unfortunate slaves who have joined the 
Abolitionists; and this is the melancholy fact in every other place where 
the Abolitionists have attempted insurrection, — the negros only have been 
the victims. 

The fact, then, is indisputable, that the abolitionist, whether he intends 
it or not, is the greatest enemy of our slaves, and they cannot too soonbe 
warned of 'their danger, so as" to avoid his temptations, and escape being 
entrapped by him. ■ • 

INSURRECTION not so much to be dreaded as the action of a 
HOSTILE Government having the tower of making Laws for the 
South. 

Let us, then, gentlemen of the Association, endeavor to protect our 
slaves, as well as ourselves, against those diabolical schemes of the aboli- 
tionist. Ordinary vigilance, followed by prompt punishment when the 
guilt is plain, will effect this. With this vigilance I have no serious 
apprehensions for the safety of our institutions, from insurrection. My 
apprehensions spring from the operation of laws, and the alteration of 
the constitution, which will steal upon us so gradually as to shear us of 
our locks, before the Philistines come upon us. The policy of Mr. Sew- 
ard is that which is most to be dreaded,— that cautious policy which will 
do nothing to startle the South (ever too prone to temporizing) and which 
may drive her from the Union ; than which, nothing would carry more dis- 
appointment and dismay to Mr. Seward and the Black Republicans ; for 
then, the South would be safe, and the abolitionized North have lost their 
victim. 



26 

The Presidential election' over, a Great Southern party must be 
formed, to save the south. 

Let us congratulate ourselves, gentlemen, that the Presidential election 
will soon be over, and the miserable scramble about men be at an end. 
What is Mr. Bell, or Mr. Breckinridge, or Mr. Douglas, with all the 
offices and honors which they might have to bestow upon their partizans 
(if they had any to give), compared to those great interests of the South, — 
her safety, her honor, her thousands of millions of property, which are 
all in imminent peril, in which every Southern man has so vital a con- 
cern. According to every principle of enlightened reason, every patri- 
otic Southern man may now expect that the old, and past, and worthless 
issues will be ignored : — that the Bell man, and the Breckinridge man, 
and the Douglas man will, now that their favorite candidates are off the 
stage, cease their party divisions, and all unite in forming a great South- 
ern party in defence of their Southern homes ; in opposition to that great 
Northern party of Black Republicans who are banded together for our 
overthrow. Surely there are weighty interests enough, in common, to 
induce every Southern man not absolutely insame to forego and forget his 
hickerings with his neighbor, and joining with him, in heart and hand, 
and every faculty, lay their united offerings on the altar of the South. 
The result of this Presidential election will determine that there.. can be 
in future but two great parties in the United States — the Northern Aboli- 
tion party, to overthrow the South, and the Southern anti-Abolition party, 
to protect the South from these inroads. Upon the triumph of Black 
Republicanism, in the person of Lincoln, there can be, consistently with 
our safety, but one party at the South. Democratic, Whig, Union, 
American, Douglas, Bell, Breckinridge, will all cease to be parties hav- 
ing any sensible meaning. They will be regarded as fossils of a past 
age, and will be swept off the field to make room for the one great South- 
ern party which must now be organized to save the South. Let every 
patriotic man, then, in the South take his position in this party, and 
whether as Douglas, Bell or Breckinridge man, labor in behalf of the 
redemption of the South. If there be one, or a dozen, or perchance a 
thousand, scattered among these brojcen up parties, who are found still 
stupidly growling over their party grudges and refusing to lend their aid 
in rescuing their native South, let their late party associates leave them 
in their morbid selfishness, and all unite and work together in this our 
great Southern anti-Abolition party. 

Alas ! •" The Unionist." 

If the Unionist, with all the evidence before him of the hostile designs 
of the Abolitionists, and the extreme dangers now hanging over the South, 
nevertheless refuses to aid, or, perhaps, even opposes the movement, let 
this great Southern party, with its true and earnest men, move on, without 
him, and save the South, in spite of him, for him and his family, as well 
as for themselves. In this great turning point in the destiny of the South 
no man can remain neutral. The aid of every loyal son is now needed 
to defend the rights and honor of his political mother, where nestles the 
home of his wife and children, and where is deposited all his property for 
their support. He who is not for her, in this hour of her extremity, is, 
without being conscious of it perhaps, against her, to the last end of her 
existence Knowing, as he ought to know, the extreme dangers which 



27 

are about to fall upon his country, the u UNIONIST" of the South in 
18(50, is the « SUB.MISSIONIST," now, and ever will be, henceforth 
and forever; and will be an ABOLITIONIST of the North in 1S70! 
To the honest but misguided ''Unionist" (and not to those of that name 
who are conscious and premeditated traitors already to the South), this 
judgment may appear harsh and opprobrious. And in the unfeigned 
resentment which may spring up out of his present honest intentions, he 
may exclaim with Hazael of old, " But what ! is thy servant a dog that he 
should do this great thing?" 

But men do not know themselves, nor of what they are made ; nor what 
they will do, under the force of circumstances. This man, who broke 
forth in this virtuous expression of earnest deprecation, mav have been 
seen, "on the morrow," standing by the bedside of a confiding master, 
whom, in his feebleness and sickness, he had just smothered to death ! — 
and a short time after, fulfilling, upon a defenceless people — their inno- 
cent little ones, and their feeble mothers — the very atrocities which had 
been foretold by the prophet, and which make the heart shudder to think of. 

Ominous condition of the South ! — and of the part which the "Southern 
Unionist" is enacting ! He plays now into the hands of a hostile govern- 
ment, by his sttbmission ; and will be found, in the end, acting with the 
Northern Abolitionists, and aiding them in bringing down upon his country 
and liis neighbors calamities which his soul now loaths at. In the one 
brief sentence in which the character of the " Southern Unionist" is just 
delineated, he may read, not a prediction (which implies uncertainty) of 
what he is to be, but the record which faithful history has already got her 
pen in hand, and is about to register concerning him. 



The vain regrets of the " Southern Unionist." 

Who, alas ! will be able to comprehend the feelings of remorse which 
will take possession of such a man (I mean the honest hut misguided 
" Southern Unionist," and not the conscious traitor who marches under 
that flag), when, at some future period, he looks hack upon the issues n( 
1860, and realizes the condition to which his country has been brought 
through his agency, supposing that his policy should prevail over the 
South ! How humiliating will be the confessions which his honest can- 
dor will compel him to record against himself! 



THE SOUL-CONFESSIONS OF THE "SOUTHERN UNIONIST" IX 1 S70. 

" I was," he may say, " earnestly importuned in 1800 by my friends 
and my neighbors, to join with them in delivering the South from the 
heavy calamities which they saw impending over her, from the Black Re- 
publican rule which was to come over them by the election of Mr. Lin- 
coln. They entreated and they urged me, by every motive which could 
be addressed to an intelligent mind — by duty, by patriotism, by honor, by 
interest, by the love which I bore for my wife and children, by the regard 
I had for" their safety, and the sanctity of my home, to strike thm and 
without delay, and boldly, for our rights, before our enemies should lake 
possession of the government, and with the treasury, the army, and the 
navy, which they would then have at command to obtain such fearful 



28 

odds against us. But their entreaties and their arguments were in vain. 
I was timid. I was afraid the General Government would coerce the 
State, that it might bring on a "collision of arms," perhaps "civil war," 
and that if my State should secede alone, that Georgia, or South Carolina, 
or Alabama, or North Carolina, would meanly take advantage of our diffi- 
culties, and basely entice away our commerce, and ruin our trade, whilst 
we were fighting in the common cause of the South. I was afraid that 
in this commotion my business might be interrupted : I might not be able 
to plant as much cotton, or sell as many goods, nor make as much money, 
nor show off at Saratoga the next year and pass among the Northern snobs 
as some great " wealthy Southerner," who had gone there to show them 
how willing he was to be fed upon by every Northern blood-sucker. I did 
not wish to have my ease at home interfered with, nor mv luxuries curtail- 
ed ; and although I was willing- to spend thousands to "show off" among 
the snobs, and submitted, with the lavish grace, befitting a "wealthy 
Southern gentleman," to the enormous exactions of landlords and trades- 
men, and every body and thing else, at the North, with which I came in 
contact; and although I squandered my money profusely, to show the 
" liberality of the Southerner," — yet I was unwilling, when I returned to 
my Southern home, to pay a dime to the State, in way of taxes, to defend 
her liberties or protect my family or property. I opposed every effort at 
resistance, although that resistance was urged on by very many of our best 
citizens, and for causes which I could not but regard as having very great 
weight. I could not distrust their judgment because in everything else 
they had my confidence; nor could I doubt their sincerity, because they 
were willing to trust their all upon the issue. But their resistance, it was 
plain to me, would lead to " disunion"; to the breaking up of this "great 
government at Washington," and the "dissolution of our glorious Union." 
And as I had always belonged to the " Union''' party, and as a Unionist 
who should always oppose the Disunionist, I opposed these Resistance 
men, eminent in wisdom and sincere in their designs, as I believe them to 
be. I tried to persuade myself (and at least succeeded), that the dangers 
to the South were not so groat and imminent as the Resistance men made 
them out to be; and with the aid of the Yankees in the community, I 
succeeded in persuading every timid and indolent man (ever too ready to 
grasp at any excuse for submission), that resistance might be postponed 
for a time; that we should "try Mr. Lincoln"; wait for him to "commit 
some overt act"; that the "Black Republicans would not do what they 
had threatened"; and that there was a great "conservative partv at the 
North," who were going to do great things for us, and put down the Abo- 
litionists. By these persuasions, I succeeded in gathering together a 
strong anti-Resistance party, and tied the South down to submission. 

" But I must here say, in these the secret confessions of my soul, that 
[ never went to the polls to cast my vote as a member of this "Union" 
party, without having my sensibilities as a Southern man painfully dis- 
turbed. There, on the one hand, were to be seen the earnest Resistance 
men urging on the people, by appeals to the noblest principles of their 
nature, courageously to come forward and vindicate the honor and rights 
of their native South, by resisting our enemies: whilst on the other side 
were to be seen herded together among the ' Union men,' the selfish, the 
craven, and the indolent, mixed up with every Yankee adventurer who 
had left his Northern Abolition home to sojourn here for a short time, 
' doing business ' — each, encouraging the other, to submit to our enemies, 
by appealing to the most sordid motives of fear, and money-making. It 



29 

was with much humiliating misgiving, whether I was in the right place 
for a Southern man, when I found myself at all elections in close associa- 
tion with these Northern men — having no harmony of feeling with the 
South— no permanent home, or fixed property amongst us, and claiming 
to be citizens of distant and hostile communities. But if these were my 
party associates; to whom, was I opposing myself? To the natives of 
the soil, who had the deepest interests at stake— to my near neighbors, 
and most cherished friends, in whose wisdom and integrity I had every 
confidence. " 

"But I yielded myself up to the principles of Unionism. ^ land my 
party opposed resistance; we preached and encouraged submission; and 
our counsels prevailed ; and now, at the end of ten years, I look around 
me, and find these to be fruits of my work: 

"The South is fettered, spiritless, reduced to poverty and imbecility; 
whilst the North has fattened by her submission; has become rich and 
powerful, and is raging with the fierce spirit of abolition aggression. My 
counsels, alas ! have become fatal to her. She has submitted too long : 
she is now, indeed, too feeble to resist; I realize mw, for the first tune, 
the stunning import of the words :— I SUBMIT TO THE EMANCIPA- 
TION OF MY SLAVES." 

Such, resistance men of the South, must be the unhappy reflections, 
not of the "Southern Unionist" merely, but of every man, no matter 
under what name, or party banner; he may act, who opposes prompt, vig- 
orous, decided action against the hostile rule of the Black Republicans. 
Disouise it as he may, to deceive his conscience, postponement of effectual 
resistance now, to some future period of "overt acts" of further aggres- 
sion is submission, now -—submission forever I If these Procrastinators 
do not see, in the Fact which, like some tall giant, stalks abroad before 
their eyes, to wit : that we are soon to be ruled over by our deadliest ene- 
mies,— enough of motive, to throw off that government, and rule our- 
selves —then it must be because they would think it preferable to wait 
for the "overt act" of being well kicked and trodden under foot— before 
they took any measures to prevent it; although tney had been threatened 
with these indignities by certain associated bullies who had both the 
ample power and the thorough good will to fulfil their threats. 

Everything to be lost by postponement: nothing to be gained by it. 

And if with all the favorable circumstances in which we now find our- 
selves which an overruling Providence seems to have brought together 
especially to aid us, and which we may never expect again to concur in 
our future history,— these " procrastinators" are too timid to strike lor 
their country, and shrink now from the danger, what may we expect from 
them in future, when, our enemies having got possession of the Govern- 
ment with all its mighty engines of oppression, shall not in their strength ; 
and when we, with each day of our subjection (or rather subjugation) to 
them shall become weaker and less able to resist? 11 fan unman then, 
„ow%hen is manhood and courage to take their place? ti eyer when 
and under what possible conjuncture of circumstances? Let them tell 
us, or cease to delude us with ghostly hopes, to winch they can assign 
neither "local habitation or a name." ■, , 

Let every true man, then, of every party ni the South ruminate well 
this Question. Let him examine it on this side and that, above and below, 
and all around, and see whether postponement of resistance now ,s nut 



30 

submission now — submission forever — with all its disastrous consequences. 
If no other conclusion but this can be arrived at, then procrastination, is 
rain; and with this conviction the resistance party will find its ranks 
soon thronged with most valuable allies ; for the procrastinator is not a 
submissionist from principle, but only by mistake. 

That the destiny of the South is to be decided by the craven submis- 
sionist, is a verdict which would carry dismay to every Southern house- 
hold, and would blister with endless shame the manhood of her sons. 
That she should submit, without a struggle, to have all her priceless 
advantages taken away from her, (which is the counsel of the submission- 
ist), at the demand of her insulting enemies, is a thought which is not to 
be tolerated. How utterly demoralized must that people be, who, when 
everything that is dear to them on earth is at stake, shrink back from its 
defence, from the most ignominious of all motives, the fear of danger and 
of mere animal sloth ! That the South should servilely bend her neck to 
her enemies, and submit to have her millions of slaves emancipated, hei 
thousands of millions of property taken away from her, her citizens re- 
duced to poverty and want, a servile and debased race elevated to an 
equality with her citizens, and their families degraded by such an inter- 
course — and that she should submit to all this, with the utmost loathing, 
merely because she was too cowardly, and too indolent, and too selfish, to 
make the proper sacrifices to protect herself, is to suppose an intensity of 
baseness on her part which would consign her to everlasting infamy. 
History would be unable to find words to record the hissing scorn which 
such pusillanimity would deserve. And yet such is the despicable con- 
dition to which the submissionist would reduce her. 

I call upon you then, men of the South, (not the poltroons of the South) 
true men of the South, (not traitors of the South), to rally to the rescue of 
your cherished, native land. Suffer not the counsels of the submissionist 
to prevail. Honor and duty call upon you for resistance, — undying 
^resistance, — to defend your country against the ready purposes of her 
enemies. And never before have honor and duty been more surely the 
path of true wisdom, leading to permanent safety. Falter not then, 
either as individual, or State, because your neighbor may, perchance, be 
a submissionist ; but go on without him, and leave him to his infamy. 
The honor of neither State, nor man, is in the keeping of his neighbor. 
Each must protect his own, and leave to impartial history to record how 
manfully he has guarded it. What vtyuld it avail to South Carolina if 
Georgia, or any other Southern State, acting under the noble impulses of a 
manly courage, should throw down the gauntlet of defiance to her enemies, 
and declare before the world that a Black Republican government should 
not rule over her citizens, — what would it avail, I say, to Soutli Carolina 
in rescuing her name from the contempt of mankind, and the execration 
of her own children, if she were found submitting to the degrading bond- 
age ! Would the gallantry of her Southern sister atone for the infamy 
she will have brought upon herself; or sponge from the record the 
"dastard" and " poltroon " which history will have written against her 
name ! 

Let each man (and each State) then act out for himself according to 
the impulses of his own high duty and honor, and without being influ- 
enced by the pusillanimity of his neighbor. And as the cause of the 
South is common to all, and as the interests at stake are too stupendous 
to be given up without ruin to each — we may rest assured that when the 



JJ1 



m 



day of decisive action shall arrive, they will be found all moving w con 
cert without any previous agreement having been formed, pledging then 
to that purpose. Among the States thus moving on earnestly for their 
deliverance, I think, gentlemen, you know what place South Carolina 
will occupy in the picture. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

People at the North, where the movements of the Abolitionists are duly- 
chronicled in the daily prints, are fully aware of these hostile purposes, 
and contemplate with amazement the doltish sloth and apathy which per- 
vade the South, whilst their deadly enemies are industriously sapping and 
mining under their very citadel, and will be soon ready to blow it up into 
fragments. What we fail to see, is plainly manifest to them; and among 
the few who are there not under the sway of abolitionism, and have given 
expression to their thoughts in a public form, there are some, (such as Mr. 
O'Connor, Mr. Cushing and Mr. Barnard,) seeing, as they do, the awful 
calamities which these schemes of the abolitionists will entail upon the 
South, who express the opinion that the South, as a matter of course, will 
not, and cannot, submit to such a government without utter ruin and dis- 
honor. Nor do I think the South would submit, even for an hour, if they 
were properly informed of the designs of the party which will soon, with 
Mr. Lincoln at its head, have the control of the government. From pru- 
dential considerations, which, however, I think they have carried to a 
mistaken extreme, the newspapers of the South have failed to keep their 
readers informed of these dangerous measures; and facts, which they 
who are most deeply interested in knowing but are yet ignorant of, are 
known only to those at a distance, who have but little concern in the mat- 
ter. What Southern man, whether the owner or not the owner of slaves, 
would consent to live under the government of Abolitionists, when he 
knew that the settled purpose of that government was the emancipation 
of all the slaves, and making the slave (the inferior race) equal to the 
white man. The poorest white man in the South (except he be already 
utterly debased by his vices or his crimes,) would spurn such a thought, 
and would rise up with indignation against a government who would thus 
attempt to degrade him and his family to the level of the Negro. And 
yet such is the undoubted, indisputable design of the Black Republican 
party when they shall take possession of the government and have power 
over the South. In proof of this, fact might be piled upon fact, until the 
most incredulous would be satisfied. These proofs will not here be 
repeated; but if any be desirous of satisfying himself on this point, he 
will find the facts accumulated (a few only out of many more which 
might have been added) in one of the Notes to a pamphlet lately publish- 
ed in Charleston, entitled "The South Alone should Govern the South, 
and African Slavery should be Controlled by those only who are Friend! v 
to it." 

d3 : . •* 



34 



B. 



Some months before the Abolition raid in Virginia, old John Brown, H. 
Kaq;i, and others, had put forth at the North a "Plan for the Abolition of 
Slavery," for the purpose, as they staled, of " forming Associations 
throughout the, country of all persons who are willing to pledge them- 
selves publicly to favor the enterprise, and render support and assistance 
of any kind." The late insurrection in Texas was a development of 
this improved scheme of diabolical ingenuity, as well as an exemplifica- 
tion of the intense hatred which is cherished by the Abolitionist against 
the Southern slaveholder. This "Plan," as well as the "Plan of the Abo- 
litionists for secret circulation" may be found also in a Note to the 
pamphlet just referred to, ("The South Alone should Govern the South;' 7 ) 
and by comparing the occurrences in Texas, until the plot was discov- 
ered and arrested, with these plans concocted by John Brown, we will be 
at no loss to understand the mode in which the Giddings and Garrisonian 
wing of the party intend, in future, to carry on this warfare. The follow- 
ing letters from Texas are taken from the New York Day Book of Sep- 
tember 8th, and give information as to the manner in which the Abolition 
plot was conducted there, which should operate as a warning to us to be 
vigila.nl and resolute : 

THE ABOLITION PLOT IN TEXAS. 

Important Letter from Judge Reagan. — Jnjvjry to New York 

Merchants. 

Hon. John H. Reagan, M. C„ has written a letter to his brother Morris 
Reagan, which is published in the Austin Gazette. Here is the letter: — 

Palestine, Aug. 18, 1860. 

Dear Brother: I was called to the court-house yesterday, when writing 
to you, to attend a meeting in relation to the negro disturbances, and did 
not write to you what is going on in that respect. 

A plot has been discovered in Tennessee, colony, and extending out 
from there, between some white men and rtegros, similar to that in Dallas, 
Ellis and Tarrant counties. Indeed, it is regarded as a part of the same 
plot — 10 p f ,ison as many people as they could on Sunday night before the 
election, and on the day of the election to burn the houses and kill as 
many of the women and children as they could while the men were gone 
to the election, and then kill the men as they returned borne. 

On last Sundav two white men, who lived up near Catfish Bayou, were 
hung as the ringleaders of the plot in this county. Our vigilance commit- 
tees and patrol have been active here in guarding against other dangers 
and in investigating this matter. 

One negro has been hung in Henderson and one in Cherokee county, 
and we are informed that the town of Henderson has been burned — sup- 
posed by incendiaries — but no particulars yet. 

I am" strongly persuaded, from all 1 can learn, that these things must 
be the result of an abolition plot arranged elsewhere than in. Texas, and 



that its execution has been committed to the desperate set of Kansas out- 
laws or similar men. And I do not think one of them ought to be per- 
mitted to leave the State alive where his complicity can be clearly shown. 
Your brother, JOHN H. REAGAN. 

The New Orleans Picayune says that the burning of towns in Texas will 
fall hcavilfi upon Neiv York merchants, they having enjoyed the greater part 
of the trade of the State. 

Thk Abolition Raid in Texas. 

| From a Special Correspondent.] 

Fort Worth, Texas, Aug. 12, 1860. 

By the last mail the Secretary forwarded you a copy of the proceedings 
of perhaps one of the largest meetings ever assembled togetiier on a simi- 
lar occasion in northern Texas. I propose to give you a short history of 
the past few weeks, the state of public sentiment, as far as I have been 
able to appreciate it, (the feelings of those present are portrayed in the 
fourth and fifth resolutions sent you,) and to make a few observations on 
the state of parties here, the necessary consequences which must follow 
the election of Lincoln to the presidency. 

About five weeks ago the town of Dallas was burned ; on the same day 
Denton shared the same fate, and several other towns in northern Texas 
were 'fired. In quick succession there were a number of country resi- 
dences set on fire. Quite a number of our citizens had ail they had on 
earth burnt up — wheat, corn, rye, oats, fencing, &c, &c. A few weeks 
before these things occurred, a fire had been discovered about 12, M., in 
the store of Messrs. Field and Kennedy, of this place. These circum- 
stances led to the formation of Vigilance Committees in almost every 
county in northern Texas. In the county of Dallas the discovery was 
made that the negros had fired the town of Dallas and the residences and 
farms of its citizens; that there was in each county a leader who was a 
white man, whose name was kept secret from most of the negros, and that 
slow matches were furnished by him to the negros, which they applied 
to the houses which they determined to destroy. There was also found a 
large quantity of poison in the possession of the negros, which, when 
gathered together, would have filled a half barrel. It was also discovered 
that these Abotition incendiaries had been sent here b}>- Abolition Aid 
Societies. In Fort Worth, a suspicious character, recently from the State 
of Minnesota, was care (ally watched. He was betrayed by one of the 
negros, detected, and hung 1 without an hour's warning. He had told that 
he expected a large number of six shooters on every day, and since he 
was hung, the revolvers, three hundred in number, have come to his address, 
marked "clocks," in three separate boxes, one hundred in each. These 
discoveries are not confined to Dallas and Tarrant counties, but extend to 
a very considerable portion of northern Texas. The 1st Monday in 
August (election day,) was the day of general revolt. I will add that the 
man hung in Fort Worth was not the only one who shared the same fate, 
and there has been a general stampede among the suspicious, several of 
whom could only save their necks by flight. The Vigilant Committees 
have determined to order no one to leave, but to hang every man who puts 
his feet on Texas soil, avowing the "doctrines" of the Free Soil party. 
To appreciate the feelings of our citizens, you would have to be in our 



36 

midst at this time. Our houses, &c, were not only to be burned and our 
citizens murdered, but the young women, and little girls were to be saved 
to become the wives or concubines of these fiends of hell. 

Our citizens look upon a Free-soiler alone, as a murderer and incen- 
diary — as one who advocates principles which must necessarily lead to 
every species of iniquity known in the catalogue of crime. They know 
their is an Abolition Aid Society forwarding six shooters here with which 
to murder us. and then commit every species of enormity on the mothers, 
sisters, wives and daughters of southern citizens. The scene is too revolt- 
ing to contemplate. 1 would to God it was untrue. And be not surprised 
when I teil you that we will hang every man who does not live above 
suspicion. Necessity now reverses the rule, for it is better for us to hang 
ninety-nine innocent (suspicious) men than to let one guilty one pass, for 
the guilty one endangers the peace of society, and every man coining 
from a northern State should live above suspicion. Such is the universal 
sentiment of this community, and soon must and will be of the enu're South. 

The great heart of the people here is with Breckinridge and Lane. 
They look upon Douglas' " Popular Sovereignty" doctrine as "Free Soil" 
in tendency and practice, and consequently destructive of the rights of 
the South, incendiary in practice if not in principle. They believe that 
Lincoln is the head and representative of this Abolition Aid Society, 
which sent John Brown to Virginia, and which is now giving us so much 
trouble here; and I believe I am not in the dark when I say that if Lin- 
coln is elected, it will take five hundred thousand troops to inaugurate 
him President of the United States. To believe that the South would 
submit to it, with the train of calamities which must of necessity follow, 
is to believe that we are paltroons, and destitute of every sentimental 
patriotism. The history of every revolution which has occurred on earth, 
shows that it never was left to a popular vote ; but outraged humanity 
commenced resistance, as our forefathers did at Boston, and a whole peo- 
ple rushed to their relief. We desire to preserve the Union, but we want 
a Union of free, equal and sovereign States, with that protection which 
the Constitution guaranties to us; just such a Union as is represented by 
the party which nominated Breckinridge and Lane, and in no other way 
can this Union be saved. 

Yours, respectfully, J. W. S. 



FURTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE ABOLITION RAID. 

[From an Old Correspondent.] 

Marshall, Texas, Aug. 12, 1860. 

Editors of the Evening Bay Book : 

The wildest excitement prevails throughout the north-western, north- 
eastern, and the central portions of Texas, in consequence of Abolition, 
incendiarism. I have no doubt but you have seen, ere this reaches you, 
the burning of Dallas, Denton', Black Jack Grove, and quite a large 
number of stores and mills. Loss estimated at between $1, 500, 000 and 
§2,000,000. Since then the Abolitionists have been detected in attempts 
to fire a number of other towns South of the above, and in an extensive 
plan of insurrection among the negros, headed by these demons of hell. 
On some plantations the negros have been examined, and arms and am- 



37 

munition in considerable amount have been found in their possession ; 
they all admit they were given to them by these Lincolnites. Every day 
we hear of the burning of some town, mill, store, or farmhouse. Hender- 
son was burnt to ashes on the 6th instant, being the general election day 
for State and county officers. We hear of two or three other towns burnt 
on the same day. Women and children have been so frightened by these 
burnings and threatened rebellion of the negros, that in several instances 
they have left their homes in their fright, and when found were almost 
confirmed maniacs! Military companies are organized all over the State, 
and one-half of our citizens do constant patrol duty. But unfortunately 
up to this time Judge Lynch has had the honor to preside only in ten 
cases of whites, (northern Lincolnites") and about sixty-five of negros, all 
of whom were hung or burnt, as to the degree of their implication in the 
rebellion and burning. The plan was to burn all of the towns, thereby 
destroy the arms and ammunition, also country stores, mills, farms and. 
corn cribs, &c. Then on election day they were to be headed by John 
Browns, and march South for Houston and Galveston city, where they 
would all unite, and after pillaging and burning those two cities, the 
negros were promised by these devils incarnate, that they wouid have in 
readiness a number of vessels, and would take them forthwith to Mexico, 
where they would be free. The credulity of the negro is so great, that he 
can be induced to believe almost anything, no matter how impossible it may 
be, particularly when he is informed by a shrewd white man that the 
thing can be done, and that he will lead them on and accomplish the 
object. But the end is not yet. I believe that the northern churches 
are at the bottom of this whole affair — in fact the fanatics have already 
acknowledged it. They say that this Texas raid is in revenge for the 
expulsion of some of their brethren of the Methodist church from Texas, 
about twelve or eighteen months ago, for preaching and teaching Abolition 
incendiarism to the negros in northern Texas. Unless the churches send 
out new recruits of John Browns, I fear the boys will have nothing to do 
this winter, (as they have hung all that can be found,) the school boys 
have become so excited by the sport in hanging Abolitionists, that the 
schools are completely deserted, they having formed companies, and will 
go seventy-five or one hundred miles on horseback to participate in a 
single execution of the sentence of Judge Lynch's Court. It has now 
become a settled conviction in the South that this Union cannot subsist one 
day after Abe Lincoln has been declared President, if God, in his infinite 
wisdom, should permit him tolive that long; for they, (the people of the 
South) have made up their minds that they had rather die, sword in hand, 
in defence of their homes, their wives, their children and slaves, in defence 
of the Constitution, the laws, and their sacred honor, than tamely submit 
to an organized system of robbery, a degraded and loathsome scheme of 
amalgamation, a breaking up of the compromises of the Constitution, and 
a total exclusion of the South from the common Territories of the country 
won by their blood and treasure. 

W. R. D. W. 

Citizens of the South, do not delude yourselves with the opinion that 
none of these emissaries have crawled in among you, and are even now 
lurking within your respective States. The spear of an Ithurial would 
start up many from their present disguises. Alabama and Georgia, and 
more recently, Virginia and North Carolina, and South Carolina, have 

i 



m 

been polluted by their presence, and have been compelled, for their crimes, 
to help them to the cheap martyrdom which they sought. 
And now, 

Husbands, 

Fathers, 

Brothers, 
reperuse certain sentences in those letters, which, from the horror which 
they inspire, deserve the emphasis with which they are distinguished. 
Ponder the unutterable degradation which is there designed for you, and 
then say, what union can we have with a people who can devise such 
enormities, and what perils and sacrifices should we not rather endure 
than submit to the government of a party which encourages, promotes, 
and presses on such outrages ! 

c. 

From the beginning of the war in Kansas, arising out of the attempt 
of the Northern Abolitionists to drive out the Southern Slaveholder from 
that territory, the writer of this, became profoundly impressed with the 
importance to the South of getting possession of it. From its geographic 
cal position, he considered that it was worth thousands of millions of 
dollars to the South, as a fortress which would guard all the territories 
laying back of it; from Missouri on the North, to Texas on the South; 
all which would ultimately become Slave States, if the harrier of Kansas 
were not broken down. The possession of all those States then, being 
dependent upon the possession of Kansas, he considered that no otdinary 
efforts should be made by the South, to secure Kansas, as a State favor- 
able to our institutions. The abolitionist North, with that far-seeing 
sagacity which they always exercise when their interests are at stake, 
immediately organized societies to aid "Emigrants" in going to Kansas 
and occupying it; and with great energy and liberality provided large 
funds to accomplish their purpose. The South was appealed to, for the 
purpose of furnishing aid, also, to her emigrants. The writer was applied 
to, by the Kansas Association of Charleston, composed of some of our 
most distinguished and public spirited citizens; and in March, 1856, 
nearly four years before the article of "Python" was published in De 
Bow's Review, he addressed a letter to Wm. Whale}', Esq., the Chairman 
of the Executive Committee of that Association; in which (whilst he 
asked the privilege of joining them in their contributions) he expressed 
his views somewhat fully, upon the very great importance to the South of 
the issue then made in Kansas. * 

In allusion to the extraordinary efforts which were made by the aboli- 
tion " Emigrant Aid Societies," to send men and money into Kansas to 
aboirtionize and take it from the South, he urged corresponding exertions 
to be made to save that territory, as rightfully belonging to us, and as 
being worthy of very great sacrifices to be made, for its possession. 
Without having followed out the disastrous consequences, to which the 
loss of Kansas would legitimately and inevitably bead, as "Python" has 
done, the writer contented himself with merely pointing out the immediate 
effects; which he thought were quite sufficient to wake up every South- 
ern man of ordinary forethought to exert himself to save that territory to 
us. He spoke of Kansas, " as the ' Malakoff' fortress, the taking of 
which, would decide our victory, in this battle with abolitionism in that 
quarter of our Republic; — a battle, in which from three to five States, 



30 

were the prizes, to be won or lost, to the South, and her cherished insti- 
tutions." 

But the writer laments to say, that, like "Python," he "wrote and 
spoke in vain." The citizens of the South could not be induced as at 
present to look at, and provide against a dancer which appeared so 
remote. - They were slumbering and idle, whilst their enemies were 
actively at work : and whilst the Abolitionists contributed their hundreds 
of thousands of dollars to equip and send out, and colonize their emi- 
grants in Kansas — a few scanty thousands only, were all that were parsi- 
moniously doled out by the whole South; which was utterly inadequate, 
to encourage any emigrants to leave their homes, or to aid the few who 
went there. The " pennywise," chuckled over the cunning, by which he 
escaped making his contribution to the common cause; and the meanness 
of his avarice which saved him a few dimes has been rewarded, by the 
loss of a territory which, judged by the consequences which will flow 
from it, is worth thousands of millions of dollars, and will result in the 
''constitutional" emancipation of his slaves! 

It is but justice however to say, that Kansas was left unaided by the 
South, not so much from penuriousness, as from the poverty of the great 
bulk of our people. The whole course of Federal legislation has tended 
to divert money from the South; — which leaves her scanty of funds for 
any public-spirited purpose; — and for the same reason has accumulated 
abundant capita! at the North and in the abolition States; which enables 
that section to subscribe largely for any scheme of public policy — even 
if it be, to hire the loafers of their cities, to drive the slave-holder from 
the common territories. 

Thus does our union with them, cut us both ways, like a two-edged 
sword. We are first impoverished, by Federal laws which make them 
rich and powerful, and us feeble and poor; and then they use that very 
power and riches, of which we have been drained by them, to swoop 
down upon us,' farther to rob and oppress us. 






CONSTITUTION OF 1860 ASSOCIATION. 



I. — The members whose names are hereto subscribed, constitute them- 
selves an 'Association, for the purpose of promoting resistance, by the 
slaveholding States, to the aggressions of the non-slavehoiding States. 

II. — The Association shall have a President, to be selected by a majority 
of the members present, and a Recording Secretary, to be appointed by 
the President. 

III. — There shall be appointed, by the President, an Executive Com- 
mittee, to consist of fifteen members, to whom shall be entrusted such 
duties for promoting the objects of the Association, as shall, in its discre- 
tion be necessary, with power to appoint under it a Committee of Publi- 
cation, and such other committees as it may deem proper. 

IV. — Upon subscribing these articles, each member shall pay the sum of 
five dollars to the Treasurer, who shall be appointed by the Executive 
Committee. 

V. — The Association shall be convened whenever in the opinion of the 
President, or of the Executive Committee, it shall be deemed requisite. 

The Secretary and Treasurer of the 1800 Association is Mr. Wm. 
Tennent, Jr., No. G Broad Street, Charleston. 



